The La Cañada High School football team, guided by head coach Dave Avramovich, is resolute in their pursuit of a Rio Hondo League title, aiming to outshine perennial powerhouse Monrovia after finishing tied for second with South Pasadena last season.
“We want to be league champs,” Avramovich said. “That’s the goal and that’s always been the goal. If we can get the ball to bounce our way a couple times, that’s possible. We want to be in the playoffs, that’s goal No. 2. So if you can’t win league, you transition quickly and finish in second. We expect to be competitive, we expect to win and we expect to be in the playoffs.”
Securing the highly sought-after league championship will not come without its share of hurdles. LCHS must navigate past Monrovia and South Pasadena, with Monrovia having secured 10 league titles since 2010. Meanwhile, La Cañada grapples with the challenge of a 12-game losing streak against Monrovia in the last 13 seasons, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Additionally, La Cañada’s record against South Pasadena stands at 3-9 since 2010, fueling their aspiration to break a seven-game losing streak this season.
“Monrovia has been the alpha dog for the past 25 years and they are going to be a tough matchup,” Avramovich said. “South Pas is a great program. They have done a great job and they are kind of our nemesis probably because we play them the week after Monrovia every year. For whatever reason, we’ve had a hard time closing out South Pas.”
Other league opponents include San Marino, Pasadena Polytechnic and Temple City. Avramovich anticipates heightened competition from all three programs this season, elevating the significance of each league showdown.
“The whole league is good. We had a seven-on-seven with Temple City and their coaching staff is doing a tremendous job getting kids out. They aren’t by any means a bad team,” Avramovich said. “Poly has a new coach that has won everywhere he’s been beforehand, and San Marino has some of the best talent and skill players in the league. It’s a good league and what I think is great is that anyone can win it, so it’ll make the Friday night’s really fun.”
The Spartans’ roster faces a notable void with the departure of standout running back Corey Cheung, who graduated last academic year. Cheung, honored as the league’s Offensive Player of the Year, played a pivotal role in La Cañada’s accomplishments last season. However, Avramovich remains confident that he possesses the essential components to replicate Cheung’s contributions in the aggregate.
“Losing any player of that caliber is kind of a bummer but it’s also like great programs have to replace great players all the time. As we continue to evolve into a more mature program, we’re going to keep running into this problem,” Avramovich said. “We are probably going to share that production amongst a couple different kids. Macky [Plocher] will probably be asked to pass or run more, Lorenz [Bayug] has done a tremendous job but also Sohan [Garg] and Dash [Paper]. They all look pretty good running the ball and there are athletes that could carry the load, but it’ll be hard to replace Corey’s production completely.”
Plocher enters his final season as the starting quarterback. He helped lead the Spartans to a 6-5 overall record last year and earned second team all-league recognition after completing 107 of 197 passes for 1,557 yards and 14 touchdowns while adding 476 yards and four touchdowns on 87 carries.
“I’m little sad that this will be my last year but very excited to play,” Plocher said. “Last year we made it to the CIF playoffs for the first time in a while and we hope to do the same thing and go farther this year.”
The veteran receiving corps at La Cañada includes Hayden Dancsecs, Tyler Bond, Luke Raulli and Alan Razo. Avramovich noted substantial progress made by these returning players during the offseason and is eager to unleash their full potential on the field. Among them, Bond made 17 receptions for 159 yards while Razo contributed with four catches totaling 32 yards.
“Alan has done a tremendous job. He’s so explosive, he’s athletic, he has that track speed, he’s got the soccer movement, he’s got tremendous ball skills and he’s a guy that can take the lid off,” Avramovich said. “I’ve been really impressed with Tyler and his ability to go over the middle. He’s little but man he is so competitive, he runs great routes and he catches the ball well.”
Dancsecs showcased his skills with 23 catches for 262 yards and a touchdown while Raulli hauled in five receptions for 72 yards.
“Hayden was a great guy last year in the slot and he did a great job catching the ball over the middle,” Avramovich said. “I’m excited to see what Luke does this year.”
Avramovich commended the La Cañada defense, anchored by returners Josh Carruthers, Cayden Klein, Spencer Turner and Bayug, for their impressive preseason performance. In the previous season, Carruthers recorded 64 total tackles, Bayug registered 48 tackles, Turner contributed 22 tackles and Klein secured 19 tackles, collectively bolstering the team’s lockdown defense.
“Josh is going to make a ton of plays for us and if people want to throw over the middle, he’s going to eat them for lunch,” Avramovich said. “The defense looks great; they’ve improved so much since May. It was a little bit of a slow start but when we got on the seven-on-seven circuit we got a lot better.”
The Spartans will host Rosemead in their season opener tonight at 7 p.m before hosting Norwalk for a nonleague game on Aug. 25.
First published in the August 17 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
