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PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF
The John Glenn High boys soccer team made school history by playing in its first soccer divisional championship game ever. Glenn lost to Pasadena Poly High 3-0 last Saturday night in the CIF-Southern Section Division 7 finals.
March 5, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
Playing on the biggest stage in the history of the John Glenn High boys soccer program, the Eagles, not known for doing much in the sport, was in the CIF-Southern Section divisional finals for the first time ever. In fact, Glenn had won more playoff games in the previous two and a half weeks or so than it had combined in at least the past 27 seasons.
But Momo Tonthat provided all the scoring for Pasadena Poly High, recording a hat trick as the Panthers blanked the Eagles 3-0 last Saturday night on Glenn’s home turf for the Division 7 championship. The Eagles conclude the season at 15-10-2.
“It was unbelievable the season that we had,” said Glenn head coach Luis-David Enciso. “In the past, Glenn has been written off as a team that hasn’t really made CIF, let alone the finals. But we’ve faced various hurdles-injuries, certain things like suspensions and maybe even our calendar. We had a calendar where we played eight games in 10 days. But despite all that, the boys pulled off a feat. And they were just short of something historic; they became the first [City of] Norwalk soccer team to be in the CIF finals. That’s something special.”
Junior Ricardo Rodriguez provided most the offensive action for Glenn with at least half of the 10 shots the hosts would have in the first half. The first came in the 10th minute when his attempt was saved by Eli Axel. Five minutes later following a corner kick from junior Juan Navarro, Rodriguez missed a pair of shots within seconds of each other. In the 24th minute, another shot sailed off to the left and two minutes after that, Tonthat scored the first goal.
Rodriguez would miss an open net opportunity in the 28th minute and after Noah Daniel was assessed a yellow card for taking down sophomore Juan D. Martinez, junior Mauricio Duque’s free kick was off the mark. Glenn, the third seeded team in the division, outshot the Panthers 9-8 in the half.
“In all objectivity, I think Pasadena [Poly] took control of the first half in the first 15 minutes after their goal, then we started taking control,” said Enciso. “There were some very good chances that I think if we had put them away…that would have turned the tide of the game. but I think it was very back and forth.”
Tonthat made it 2-0 in the 56th minute as he raced down the Glenn sideline and took his shot from just outside the penalty box. Rodriguez would have another opportunity three minutes later as he saw an opening through the box. But his shot sailed, and the last goal came in the 70th minute. The Eagles would have just five shots on goal in the second half to just the two goals from Tonthat.
The 15 victories are the most by any Glenn team in at least 27 seasons, if that. From the 2001-2002 season to 2004-2005, the Eagles had anywhere from 10-13 wins. Other than that, the program has not posted more than nine victories in any season since the 1998-1999 campaign. Glenn also finished in fourth place in the 605 League and were in the playoffs as an at-large team. It marked the first time since 2002 the Eagles advanced to the playoffs as an at-large representative. The program had teams make it to the playoffs in the 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, 2011-2012 and 2019-2020 seasons, never getting to the quarterfinals until now.
“It was a little bit of everything,” said Enciso. “I’ve always told my players that you need tactics, talent and heart. Sometimes you need all three to make it past, no matter what division you face. For instance, we play Artesia, which is a Division 2 school, in our league and against them, we always go toe to toe when technically, and on paper, we’re supposed to be the underdog. But honestly, it was just believing that we’re worth more than being an underdog.”
Outside of wrestling, there hasn’t been much to cheer for when it comes to John Glenn athletics. Only the 1964 and 1966 boys cross country teams have brought home a CIF-Southern Section championship besides wrestling. The 1970 football team lost to Temple City High 14-7 in the AA championship game and the 1977 baseball team fell to San Marino High 4-1 in the 2-A division title game. The school does have a combined nine wrestling championships since 1993.
And for those thinking this season was a fluke for the Eagles, guess again. The team had three seniors off a squad of 19 players and if the 16 underclassmen return next season, Glenn will have at least 11 seniors.
“To have that underdog mentality knowing that people are pretty much going to write off John Glenn, not just in the Norwalk area, but in the 562 [area code] area, I think we gave a statement that we could [win games],” said Enciso. “We had really good results during the year where we defeated Cerritos, which was [second-seeded in Division 5] and where we should have beat Norwalk, but we missed a penalty kick. Glenn just has a special thing that when all the chips are down, we’re usually the guys that want to get the challenges.”
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