Crescenta Valley High football rolls past La CaÃ?Â±ada

Football: Falcons improve to 3-0 with 42-14 nonleague win against host Spartans.

September 20, 2013|By Andrew Shortall, andrew.shortall@latimes.com

Crescenta Valley High defensive back Byung Kim is chased…

It appears the 2013 season is shaping up to be a historic one for the Crescenta Valley High football team, as the Falcons extended their season-opening winning streak to three games with a victory over its rival Friday night.

It marked the first time since 2002 CV started a year with three wins, as it toppled nearby La Cañada, 42-14, on the road. The Spartans, who were seeking their first 3-0 start since 2005, fell to 2-1.

While the Falcons relied on their offense in their first two victories, the third was paved by a strong defensive effort in the first half that led to a 28-0 CV advantage at halftime.

Despite the lopsided win, Crescenta Valley Coach Paul Schilling didn’t like what he saw overall.

“Defense did a good job, it was our best game defensively, but I’m not really happy with the game as a whole, we just didn’t play well,” Schilling said. “We constantly say it’s about us but they did some different things than we were used to seeing and we didn’t adjust. We came out with a big win, but I feel like it was kind of one of those games. We were nervous, it just didn’t feel right.”

Still, the Falcons’ halftime lead was more than enough to survive some nerves and a sloppy start to the second half. Two Crescenta Valley blunders set up short fields and easy Spartan scores on one-yard Donnie Breneman runs about five minutes into the second half.

It made it a two-score game, 28-14. It had appeared the Falcons were in complete control at intermission and pulled their starting quarterback Brian Gadsby after he cut his lip.

Without Gadsby, CV was held to a three-and-out on its first drive out of the break and it compounded matters when the ensuing snap went over the punter's head and for an 11-yard loss.

La Cañada took over five yards from the end zone and Breneman scored two plays later. The Spartans' defense set up Breneman's next score two plays later when Todd Murray knocked down an option toss and John Sotoodeh jumped on it at the one-yard line with 6:56 left in the third for the Spartans.

“We come out in the second half, drive the ball on them and stuff it down their throats with our jumbo package, which we should have done earlier in the game,” said La Cañada Coach James Sims, who attempted 11 passes in the first half and threw two picks in the process. “I just didn’t want my players going both ways because we had to cover all that passing.”

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