Max Hejazi scored a touchdown on a pass from Jack Thomas.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN
The Palisades High School Football team, which is ranked fifth in the LA. City Section Football Division 1, squeaked past the 12th ranked South East Jaguars 35-32 on Friday, November 8.
The Dolphins now will face the fourth-ranked North Hollywood team on November 15. Other results in the bracket was top-ranked Eagle Rock beating Crenshaw (16th) in a nail-biter 8-7. Venice and Westchester were the other Western League teams in this bracket. Venice (3) lost to Franklin (14) 28-17, but Westchester (7) advanced with a win over Huntington Park (10) 44-40.
The Dolphins are now 9-2 for the season with the win, but the first playoff game wasn’t pretty. At the beginning of the season, the Dolphins accumulated large penalties, but the athleticism of the team was able to cover those mistakes.
In this game there were more than 225 penalty yards against Pali, which kept South East in the game.
“That was one of the reasons the game was close,” said Dylen Smith after the game, who emphasized the Dolphins will start working immediately on their upcoming game against North Hollywood.
“It’ll be a physical game, but we’ll be ready for it,” he said.
Pali Quarterback Jack Thomas threw for 227 yards and four touchdowns while Max Hejazi picked up 93 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Harrison Carter rushed for 101 yards.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN
On the ground, Harrison Carter rushed for 101 yards, while also picking up 60 receiving yards.
On the game-opening kickoff, Junior Nico Townsley picked up the ball and ran it for 60 yards to score the first touchdown, and kicker Jack Malloy made the PAT. Twenty-seconds in the game, the Dolphins were up 7 to 0.
The Jaguars couldn’t move the ball and had to punt. Pali followed suit and punted.
Then the Dolphins stepped in to help their adversary, in the first of many penalties, the Dolphins gave the Jags 15 yards, which moved the ball the Palisades 34 and two plays later the Jags were on the board with a touchdown. When Palisades went offside on the attempt at the PAT. The Jags took the opportunity to go for the two-point conversion and thanks to Pali, were up 8 to 7.
In their next turn on the field, the Dolphins had a false start, a personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct, before junior, Lehenry A Solomon, scored the team’s second touchdown. Malloy kicked the second of his five PATS.
With penalties, the Dolphins had to kick off from their own 25, which meant South East easily moved into field goal position, and at the end of the first quarter the score was 14-11.
The second quarter started well with a pass from Thomas to Hejazi in the endzone to score a touchdown, but. . ..then the penalties against the Dolphins started adding up again and midway through the second quarter, Pali already had given the South East 77 yards. The Jags capitalized on the penalties and scored another touchdown.
Senior Jake Treibatch, once again led in tackles with 9, three solo and six assists.
This game should have been a blowout for Pali but wasn’t because the team accumulated 21 penalties.
Quarterback Jack Thomas continues to be stellar on the field.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN