Is South Hills better than expected after its 33-28 comeback victory over Colony?

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By Fred J. Robledo, SGVN
Just how good is South Hills?

One of the biggest surprises opening weekend was South Hills’ 33-28 comeback victory over Colony, a team that was 11-2 last season and features all-purpose threat Samajie Grant, who verbally committed to the University of Arizona with offers from UCLA and Utah on the table.

Although Grant scored three touchdowns, which included a punt and kickoff return, the Huskies showed a lot of poise rallying from a 21-6 halftime deficit — scoring 27 unanswered points to pull out the victory.

The Huskies are replacing one of the best offensive trio’s in the Valley in quarterback Vincent Hernandez, running back Jamel Hart, receiver Jordan Canada, and it was coach Albert Rodriguez’s first-game replacing Steve Bogan, who won four CIF titles with the Huskies.

Not a bad opener, especially for a group that looked so-so a week earlier in a scrimmage against Covina.

“A scrimmage is a scrimmage, we kept it pretty vanilla,” Rodriguez said. “Getting a win over a team like Colony is great for us, they have a lot of athletes and we knew it would be a challenge.

“I’m not surprised we won the game, we’ve been working our tails and we’re in good shape. I thought that was one of the differences, we wore them down in the second half.”

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South Hills couldn’t stop anyone last season, allowing an average of 36 points.
Although it gave up 28 to Colony, two TDs came on Grant’s punt and kickoff returns.

“We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to improve in that area,” Rodriguez said. “We gave up a couple touchdowns on special teams, but other than that, I thought our defense showed a lot of improvement for a first game.”

Quarterback Adam Goss had a big night too, rushing for 107 yards with two touchdowns.

“We’re not a team short on playmakers,” Rodriguez said. “Adam’s a great athlete and he’s going to start throwing it more. I think our offense is going to be fine.”

South Hills (1-0) is looking forward to its next test at Bonita (0-1) on Friday at 7 p.m.

Bonita rallied from a 23-point deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead over San Dimas in last week’s Smudgepot, but the Saints came back and pulled it out, 37-36.

“We watched them (Bonita) and they really got it going after falling behind,” Rodriguez said. “They have a good quarterback (Tanner Diebold) and running back Reggie Turner is impressive.

“It’s another tough game. We have a lot of tough games on the schedule so we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves or think too much about last week.”

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  • Green pastures aka “El Gato Monte”

    Last year South Hills had Hart, Canada on a few other big names around the SGV. They beat Monrovia, but did not do well after that. Sometimes the “Starless” team can be better than the previous team with all the players you knew. However, its only week 1, so there will be some stars in the making. That’s the beauty of Prep football. In Week 0 a kid is a nobody. In Week 10 he has several scholarship offers, and is a SGV household name. I hope South Hills has a great year regardless of whether we win or lose.

  • AMAT 73

    GP,
    Damn bro , it seems that AMAT’s win over Servite has you thinking much different these days . Real about face on your previous ways of posting when concerning a team with D-1 prospects . If you go back and read some of our battles I had mentioned that there are kids who are just great high school football players and either don’t go on to college or have no desire to go to college. But on the high school field they are some of the best to ever play in the SGV. The kid from Covina a few years back comes to mind , McDoug??? POY 2 years in a row I believe who I think was at MSAC or Citrus for a while but haven’t heard anything since. Great high school baller.

  • GP-

    Amat 73,

    Honestly, It was a case of attempting to “kick” someone when their down. The whole summer myself along with a kazillion bloggers built a thesis that BA was Finished. While that thesis was destroyed…I decided to put down my Bais, homer opinion and look at things differently. You don’t have be a D1 talent to be a high school star and vice versa. So I am going to let Bygones be Bygones, and fly the straight and narrow for the rest of the season. However, I did doubt Blue’s ability to run the ball, and man that kid look like the best so far. I did say he could be a D1 WR/DB, and he got that offer. I am just Hoping Monrovia does what Bishop did last week, and that is show all the haters that they were wrong. Looks Like South Hills is attempting to do the same thing. How your team is viewed may be skewed based upon your level of comp. I watch the covina vs west co game, and man you can see the difference. West Co’s Line looked better than Servites. I think Because Mtown, is so much better than the teams we play in the league and playoffs, We sometimes have a skewed view. I think our competition has not brought out the Best of the Monrovia program Yet. I also I think we are going to be on to bigger and better things after re-alignment. However, that still does not change my opinion that the Cats can play with your Lancers, and possibly win the game, not your entire schedule or division, but one game. Especially after Rio Hondo prep took out Arcadia and nearly shut them out. Anything is Possible.

  • Sgv sports fan

    The game against Colony was a nail biter. This was the first game that I remember south hills coming back from at least 2 touchdowns. This will be a grind it out team, they seem to have a good team chemistry going right now but lets see how a couple of more games go. The quarterback will improve his throwing and runs very well. The running back they had most of the second half ran and caught very well so he will help the team as well. The defense is pretty stout and their best Lineman went down early in the first quarter so hopefully he is healthy this week.

  • AMAT 73

    GP,
    As we like to say at AMAT , anything on any given Friday night is possible , so you picking Monrvia over AMAT is possible . As far as not bringing out the best in Monrovia just remember the any given night because if the Cats go waltzing into games with that mind set , they will fall . Seems to me you are probably a .500 team outside of your league and division as that seems to be the pattern when facing equal or more talented teams. Good luck on Friday as that will be a test as Ayala had a good showing last Friday and I am sure they read what the Monrovia folks have written on here.

  • Mean Green Pastures….AKA GP

    I never said we were not .500 outside Our division. What I am saying. If you view present day Monrovia as a true D11 team, which most do. Then %62 winning percentage vs Upper division/tough competition schools, is good. What would you expect for a D11 team? However, I have said that Monrovia has the ability to Beat any of the SGV teams on any given Friday night.

    WELL…in the last two years

    8-5 vs

    1-0 vs Covina
    2-2 vs San Dimas
    1-1 vs Glendora
    1-1 vs South Hills
    2-0 vs Paramount
    1-1 vs arcadia

    You have the Mojo right now…So Enjoy. BA Fans earn it.

  • Football Fan

    Great victory Albert and staff.

  • True Fan

    G.P.

    vs San Dimas 1-2

    Only a true fan would know that!!

  • Not So Fast My Friend

    I don’t know how a thread about Colony vs South Hills got hijacked into an Amat conversation, but okay.

    I for one am not surprised South Hills came back against Colony. I was surprised Colony jumped out 21-6! Part of that jump was from some big plays by Grant. Minus Grant’s big plays, just what would have that halftime score been?

    The telling thing is that South Hills made adjustments at halftime. Colony did not. That was pretty clear.

    But here’s what’s funny. Several months ago, posters on here were singing Randall’s praises. Several other posters, including myself, raised a cautionary flag for a coach, as we were told, was the winningest coach in Ontario history. Yup with well known 18-36 record.

    Colony will be competitive because they have athletes, despite the obvious coaching miscues. South Hills on the other hand can only grow in confidence on being able to rally for a win like that. How South Hills plays tomorrow night will say a lot, just like it will for a tough nonleague schedule for Colony.

    So far, the winningest coach in Ontario history is 0-1. We’ll see.