MONROVIA — One week can make a big difference in football.

Monrovia’s defense was on the receiving end of a thrashing by South Pasadena last week, giving up 425 rushing yards and 36 points in a loss.

But the Wildcats completely turned things around against previously undefeated La Cañada with a 28-21 win on Thursday night in Rio Hondo League play.

Monrovia (7-2, 3-1) is now back in the thick of the league championship race. The Wildcats, with a win next week over a struggling Pasadena Poly team, can earn a co-championship or a three-way share again of the league title if La Cañada (8-1, 3-1) beats South Pasadena (6-2, 3-0) next week.

“I thought South Pasadena played harder than us last week,” said Monrovia coach Jose Casagran. “As a result, our players appeared to me to be much more serious this whole week. Hopefully, that was part of the reason they came out and played their hearts out.”

Monrovia receiver Vince Paez caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He said the big difference between the win Thursday and last week’s 36-27 loss was the defense.

“The defense came to play,” he said. “We didn’t miss many tackles. Last week we missed a lot of tackles. We were executing on defense.”

The defense gave up only 97 yards rushing against La Cañada which relies heavily on the running game.

The Wildcats defense that made a game-winning stand with time running out in the fourth quarter.

Monrovia was holding a 28-21 lead and trying to eat up clock when Byron Bell fumbled at the La Cañada 48. River Wokosin recovered for La Cañada with 3:50 left.

Sophomore quarterback Joe Bell led the Spartans down to the Monrovia 24. That’s where the Spartans faced a fourth-and-4 with 1:40 left. La Cañada called a timeout.

The Spartans offense went back out to the field but got called for a delay of game penalty when the team couldn’t snap the ball. Bell then ran left on the next play to try to get the first down but was tackled by Dominic Lino five yards short. The Wildcats then took over and ran out the clock.

La Cañada coach Dave Avramovich took the blame for the delay of game penalty as the offense was looking to the sideline for guidance as the play clock expired.

“I thought we had 40 seconds and I think we had 25,” he said. “I didn’t see the back judge’s hand go up (to signal the play clock is winding down) and neither did any of our coaches so that’s our fault really. I should’ve called time out. We had one.”

Avramovich said he was happy his team battled back in the second half after being down 21-0 at halftime and 28-7 to start the third quarter.

“(Monrovia) is really good,” he said. “They have athletes who are tough to run with. We just played really poorly in the first half offensively. And (Monrovia) had two really big plays.”