Monrovia Crumbles in Season-Ending Loss to Palm Desert
By Aaron Valdez
Monrovia football looked to make big noise in this year’s Division IX CIF playoffs, but their efforts ultimately fell short as it lost 52-28 to Palm Desert in the first round on Friday.
Already feeling deflated from last week’s defeat to San Marino – which lost them the Rio Hondo League title – the Wildcats had one big hill to climb against a seasoned Palm Desert squad. The Aztecs were champions of the Desert Empire League with an unblemished 5-0 record and 11-0 overall record.
Monrovia held a narrow 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter but that soon proved to be just a flash in the pan. Palm Desert turned in a momentum-shifting second quarter by scoring three touchdowns to take a 21-14 lead.
The Wildcats did draw the score within one point in the third quarter but Palm Desert exploded for 28 points in the fourth to seal the deal.
This season turned out to be similar to last year’s as Monrovia was blown out by Yorba Linda 44-21 in the first round of CIF. The only difference was that the Wildcats won the league title last season.