Things were a bit different as San Marino faced off with Pasadena Polytechnic in a Rio Hondo League football game.
The Panthers were, on paper, the home team, but due to scheduling issues, the game was on the Titans’ home field, although the game’s announcer was Poly’s.
San Marino wore its blue road jerseys and Poly its home whites, although the Titans stood on the side reserved for the home team and the Panthers on the one traditionally for the visitors. To boot, it was a Thursday and both teams were fighting through injuries.
Despite the unusual trappings, San Marino took care of its business on the field, shutting out the host Panthers 35-0 on Oct. 12 in Rio Hondo league play.
“Our defense, as always, came up big,” San Marino coach Nate Turner said.
With the win, San Marino (7-1 overall, 3-0 in league) stays perfect in league play and maintains control of first place in the Rio Hondo with two league games to go.
“The seniors on this team really hadn’t experienced a kind of start like this in our entire high school career and we are just really excited to continue to roll,” Titan senior Mikey Yessaian said. “We’re just trying to continue this momentum into T.C. and Monrovia. We are just trying to show everyone that kind of doubted us at the beginning of the season, everyone that said we weren’t going to be great, we kind of just want to prove them wrong continuously and keep grinding.”
It was the second shutout of the season for San Marino and the first for the Titans in league play since 2021. The Panthers never entered the red zone, finished with negative rushing yards and saw quarterback Everson Mathis sacked nine times.
“Obviously [Poly] is kind of centered around that quarterback,” Titans senior Clement Truong, who had two sacks, said. “Our coach was saying that if you cut off the head of the snake then the rest of the body dies, right? So, that is what we came to do and I think we got after it today.”
San Marino scored on the first snap of the contest when senior Nick Escamilla motioned across from right to left, took a handoff, got outside, turned upfield and raced down the sideline for a 52-yard touchdown. Nick Acuna kicked the PAT and San Marino led 7-0 after just 21 seconds played.
However, the next four possessions, alternating between the teams, produced no first downs. Poly (4-4, 1-2) got its first late in the first quarter when Mathis connected with his brother Preston Mathis for a 32-yard completion. However, the possession ended early in the second quarter on a turnover on downs.
With 3:13 left before half, Titan senior Coleman Morning recovered a Panther fumble. San Marino then drove 64 yards for a touchdown, culminating with a 9-yard scoring pass from Parker Wilson to Yessaian. On the play, Wilson rolled out to the right to escape pressure before firing the pass to Yessaian. Key on the drive was a 27-yard run by Morning and a 19-yard catch by Yessaian. Poly’s next drive went nowhere and it was 14-0 at halftime.
Poly started the second half with the ball but was held in check. The Panthers went for a fake punt deep in their own territory, but the pass was incomplete, giving the Titans the ball on the Panthers’ 23-yard line. Two plays later, Parker ran 16 yards up the middle for a touchdown and 21-0 advantage.
Later in the quarter, the Panthers went for it again deep in their own territory, but were sacked on fourth down, gifting the Titans another short field. This time San Marino took over on the Poly 13-yard line and only needed one play to score when Julian Solis ran with power up the middle for a 13-yard touchdown and a 28-0 cushion with 3:44 left in the third.
“We were just trying to steal a possession and just continue on,” Poly coach Ken Henderson said of going for it deep on his own side of the field twice. “I told my team I take full responsibility for that.”
The only score of the fourth quarter was a 17-yard touchdown pass from Parker, who rolled out to his right before connecting with Yessaian with 5:22 to go. The rest of the game was played with a running clock.
“Thursday game — we came out a little flat in the beginning,” Yessaian said. “A bad win is still a win. We set our bar high enough to where this is not where our standard is, but I’m glad our guys came out and still fought and competed. 35-0, our defense stepped up today when we really needed it. That was a big win for us.”
Parker, a freshman, started at quarterback in place of injured Brady Beck for the second time in a row. However, this time he took an overwhelming majority of the snaps, compared to last week when Morning carried the load. Parker finished 10 of 18 for 111 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran 12 times for 45 yards and one touchdown.
Yessaian had 43 yards receiving on three catches, including two touchdowns. Morning had four catches for 23 yards and also ran twice for 31 yards. Solis, who ran six times for 56 yards and one touchdown, had one grab for 14 yards. Sid Danenhauer and Nathan Yarahmadi had a catch apiece for 23 and 6 yards, respectively.
First published in the Oct.19 issue of the San Marino Tribune
