Monrovia Splits Pair of League-Opening Matches
By Aaron Valdez
The Monrovia girls’ soccer team has experienced some turbulence this season but can still manage to make a serious run at the Rio Hondo League crown.
After opening the season 4-0-1, Wildcats seemed very poised to not only compete for the league title, but also qualify for CIF and make a deep run. However, things took a turn for the worse at the Westminster Tournament back in early December where Monrovia began a six-game losing skid.
The Wildcats have somewhat bounced back from their losing streak but have gone 1-2 since the turn of the calendar year. The team suffered a deflating 5-0 defeat to rivals La Canada in the opening game of league play on Jan 5. Monrovia did manage to edge out San Marino 2-1 to even out its Rio Hondo record but fell 4-2 to San Gabriel Mission in a nonleague bout on Jan. 11.
Monrovia currently sits smack in the middle of the league table with a 1-1 record (7-8-2 overall) but already have a lot of ground to make up as South Pasadena and Temple City present formidable roadblocks. The Wildcats’ match against Temple City on Tuesday was canceled due to rainy conditions and will be rescheduled to a later date.
The next game on Monrovia’s slate will be a home match against first-place South Pasadena on Friday at 3:30 p.m.