Monrovia athletic director Randy Bell said the school’s new synthetic track will be ready in time for the Wildcats to host Friday`s football game against Gladstone in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division playoffs.
The Wildcats (8-2) played their final two home games at neutral sites (Maranatha and San Marino) because the construction company had only a two-week window at the end of October in which to complete the installation.
The game also has been moved up half an hour to a 7 p.m. start.
Perception is reality?
Monrovia pummeled its Rio Hondo League opponents this season by a combined score of 235-17. That has created a perception that the Wildcats might be heading into the playoffs without really having been challenged.
That’s of little concern to Wildcats coach Ryan Maddox, however.
“From our perspective, it doesn`t really matter what other people think,” Maddox said. “We just have to prove to ourselves and win the games in front of us. As far as perception, we can’t control what people may think about us.”
Feeling lucky
Maranatha (7-3) and Temple City (4-6) received a little luck in finishing second in their respective leagues.
Maranatha finished second in the Olympic League, thanks to Village Christian beating Cerritos Valley Christian 56-27 to create a three-way tie for second place behind Whittier Christian. The Minutemen went from possibly missing the playoffs to winning a coin flip and a head-to-head tiebreaker to host La Puente (8-2) on Friday at 7 p.m. in their first Mid-Valley Division playoff appearance.
Cerritos Valley Christian, which beat Maranatha 70-64 in five overtimes, did not make the playoffs after losing the coin flip.
“When we looked at it, to think we could be fourth and completely out of the playoffs to now hosting a game, it’s very exciting for us,” Maranatha athletic director Brian DeHaan said.
Now that it’s in the playoffs, Temple City will show how much it has improved since starting the season 1-4 when it visits Rosemead (7-3).
“No question,” Temple City coach Mike McFarland said. “It’s a great opportunity to gauge our progress.”
As for how things played out in the Rio Hondo League, McFarland sympathizes with South Pasadena. The Tigers finished 6-4 overall and 3-2 in league but missed the playoffs on a coin flip after finishing in a three-way tie with Temple City and La Ca ada.
“It’s an imperfect process,” he said. “We were just very fortunate that things turned our way. There’s no way of making it a fool-proof process. Someone’s always going to get hurt when there’s an odd man out.”
Time changes
Pasadena Poly’s first-round game against Hamilton at South Pasadena has been changed to 7 p.m. on Friday.
Teams with time changes should e-mail miguel.melendez@sgvn.com.
