After Village Christian ended Azusa’s perfect season, what chance does Rosemead have?

By Aram Tolegian, Staff Writer
After watching Village Christian knock off No. 1 seed Azusa, Rosemead High School football coach Matt Koffler is hoping his team won’t be next. The Panthers, fresh off their win over Temple City last Friday, visit the Crusaders in the second round of the Mid-Valley Division playoffs on Friday at Glendale High. Kickoff is 7 p.m. (to continue, click thread).

“They’re big up front and they don’t make mistakes,” Koffler said. “They don’t turn the ball over and they run a whole bunch of different plays in a bunch of different sets.”

Village Christian (7-4) entered the playoffs as an at-large team after finishing third in the powerful Olympic League. The Crusaders put up 31 points last Friday on an Azusa team that had allowed just 30 points all season.

In order to make sure his team doesn’t suffer a similar fate, Koffler said Rosemead’s defense will have to come up big and there can be no mistakes.

“In our three losses, we had a problem turning over the football,” Koffler said. “Last week we didn’t turn it over. We need to play sound in all three facets of the game. If we don’t turn it over, we’re going to have a fighting chance.

“I tell coach (Marc) Paramo (Rosemead’s defensive coordinator) all the time to just give me the ball back. We just need stops. At critical times, we need stops. Our third-down defense hasn’t been very good of late. We need to get them off the field on third downs.”

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