High School Game of the Week: Palma braces for the heat in Yuma

‘This is not a bill’: How to decipher... 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk explains why he ...

High School Game of the Week: Palma braces for the heat in Yuma

EDITOR’S NOTE: This weekend’s schedule and The Herald’s Top 10 are on the bottom of this article.

SALINAS>>The message being preached for the overnight road trip to Arizona harkens back to last year’s state championship football game for Palma.

It’s a business trip.

While it’s just a nonleague game, when the Chieftains line up Friday against Yuma Catholic, they will be facing the No. 1 ranked Division 4A team in Arizona.

Unlike its December state championship game, however, when the temperature was 68 degrees in Pasadena, the field temperature in Yuma will hover around the century mark at 7:30 p.m. That is actually 10 degrees cooler than what the weather was like in Yuma on Tuesday, when it soared to 112.

“You can’t simulate the heat,” Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo said. “It’s impossible. It’s one of the reasons we’ve played a lot of players in our first two games. It’s been part of our preparation for going down there.”

Carnazzo stressed in Monday’s film session to begin the hydration process now, not just for the game, but for the 10-hour bus ride to Arizona.

Palma’s Isaak Hernandez gains yardage up the middle before being tackled by King City’s Fabian Herrera in the Chieftains’ 41-0 win over King City at Salinas High School. (Don Fukui — Herald Correspondent)

“It will be a great bonding experience for our players being on the road,” Carnazzo said. “This will present some adversity. In the end, we’ll be better for doing this.”

The reigning State Division 4A champion Chieftains planned to practice at 7 a.m. on Thursday before boarding a bus, with an estimated arrival time around 7 p.m.

“When we get down there, it will be more about killing time on Friday,” Carnazzo said. “We have to be out of the hotel by noon. We’ll do some bowling then a walk-through in a cooler.”

Palma (2-0) will drive back after the game, where it doesn’t expect to return to its campus until 9 a.m. the following day.

“It’s going to be rough,” Carnazzo said. “We will be tired and worn out. The good thing is they can sleep on the bus. And we’ll have an extra day to recover, since we don’t play again until the following Saturday.”

The Shamrocks, who won their first 13 games last year before falling in their state title game, are unbeaten this fall at 2-0, having outscored their first two opponents 80-13.

“The film says they’re very talented,” Carnazzo said. “A lot of those guys played on last year’s team. They want to throw the ball. It’s hard to find a weakness. They have a legacy of good football.”

So do the Chieftains, who are chasing a record 40th straight playoff berth, having seen two generations of players from the same family come through during this historic run.

Having yet to allow a point in its first two games, Palma has outscored opponents 75-0, the first time since 2014 that it has posted back-to-back shutouts.

“Our defense is creating some of those points by putting us in good field position,” Carnazzo said. “We need to face a team like this. We can’t keep having these slow starts.”

Carnazzo was speaking about the Chieftains’ defense spending the first five-plus minutes of last week’s game against King City on the field before inducing a missed field goal.

Last year Palma was notorious for getting out the gates slow, trailing in 10 of its last 13 games, including three postseason games.

“It’s not on the players, it’s on us as coaches,” Carnazzo said. “What can we do to make them more prepared during the week? Can we make adjustments earlier?”

Multiple defensive looks are part of the game plan as Yuma Catholic has come out and torched its first two opponents through the air, with quarterback Nash Ott having tossed seven touchdowns.

Ott, who has thrown for nearly 500 yards while sitting out most of the fourth quarter in the first two games, threw for 131 yards and a touchdown in last year’s 14-0 win over Palma.

While the Shamrocks have seen 14 different players catch passes, 6-foot-1 Darryl Coleman and 6-2, 185-pound Sir Stokes have college scouts eying their services.

Coleman has turned six catches into 181 yards and three touchdowns, while Stokes has five catches for just under 100 yards and a touchdown.

Last year the pair combined for 11 catches for 113 yards against Palma, with Stokes catching a touchdown from Ott in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

“You have to keep everything in front of you,” Carnazzo said. “Play physical. We did a good job at times against them last year in the first half. We’ll mix up coverages and help our DBs.”

The Chieftains do have one of the better cornerbacks in the county in Dominic Chaidez, who has a pick-six to his credit this year, as well as two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

“We’ll have to blitz at times, mix it up,” Carnazzo said. “You can’t give them one look. They are dynamic with what they do. They can run the ball down your throat in their two tight end formation. They are similar to Salinas in their physicality.”

While Palma’s passing game has been efficient through two games, with Patrick Driscoll completing 11-of-14 passes, it hasn’t really faced a lot of adversity, in part because the ground game has been so effective.

Sophomore tailback Eli Dukes has been better than advertised, with 328 yards on just 27 carries, averaging 12.1 yards each time he touches the ball.

Dating back to last year, Dukes has rushed for over 100 yards in six straight games, having piled up 1,308 yards in his last eight games with 17 touchdowns.

“Our backs are dynamic, all three of them,” Carnazzo said. “But we need to put a hat on a hat. Imagine how good their numbers might be if given more daylight.”

The maturation process for a young offensive line continues to evolve, with sophomore guard Luke Mahler growing into his position for Palma.

“One of the themes in our last meeting is we have to continue to get better,” Carnazzo said. “And we have. We’re a lot further along than I thought we would be at this point.”

—–

This weekend’s games

THURSDAY

Sequoia at Alisal, 7 p.m.

Marina at King City, 7:30 p.m.

Gonzales at Pacific Grove, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY

Alvarez at Rancho San Juan, 7:30 p.m.

North Salinas at Santa Cruz, 7:30 p.m.

St. Francis, Watsonville at Greenfield, 7:30 p.m.

Carmel at Miramonte (Orinda), 7 p.m.

Clovis at Salinas, 7:30 p.m.