CCS Division II football playoffs: Palma upsets Menlo to advance to title game
REDWOOD CITY — Different division, different setting — similar outcome.
Another bus trip up north awaits Palma, who is once again rebuffing skeptics and carving its own identity in the postseason.
“It does have a little Déjà vu feel to it,” Palma football coach Jeff Carnazzo said.
Buried on social media four weeks ago, the Chieftains are back in the Central Coast Section finals after Saturday’s 24-23 win over Menlo in the Division II semifinals at Sequoia High.
The reigning State Division 4A champions will face top-seed Wilcox of Santa Clara either Friday or Saturday at 7 p.m. at a site yet to be determined.
“I have not seen any video of Wilcox,” Carnazzo said. “I assume they are still a veer team. It is another formidable opponent. I like the direction we’re going. We’ve been finishing games the last two weeks. We struggled with that earlier in the season.”
The Chieftains and Wilcox used to scrimmage each other every year from 1990-2010, but have not played each other in a regular season game.
Wilcox fell in the Open Division finals two years ago to Serra and lost in the Division I title game last season to Los Gatos. It hasn’t won a section title since 1995.
The No. 7 seeded Chieftains (7-5) have gone on the road and knocked off two higher seeded teams, beating No. 2 Sacred Heart Cathedral 28-19 two weeks ago.
A common opponent is Hollister, who Wilcox beat 38-13 in Week 2, while the Chieftains defeated their Gabilan Division rival 32-15 on October 25.
“It’s been real rewarding watching the development of the young kids,” Carnazzo said. “Early on we had that dear in the headlights look. The evolution of this season is what I love so much about football.”
Dating back to last season, the defending CCS Division III champion Chieftains have won seven straight postseason games, with five of them coming on the road.
Champions of the Peninsula Bay League, the Chargers are riding an eight-game winning streak at 10-2, escaping last Friday with a 10-7 win over Menlo-Atherton, a league rival they were facing for the second time in three weeks.
“The seniors on this roster have established themselves,” said Carnazzo, who also has 13 sophomores seeing significant time. “The biggest boast to our team has been the return of tight end Aiden Williams.”
Williams, who caught his first touchdown pass of the season in last week’s win over Sacred Heart Cathedral, is also a punishing run blocker, which has enhanced the Chieftains running game in the last five weeks.
That in turn has benefitted sophomore tailback Eli Dukes, who went over 200 rushing yards for the third time since William’s return, rushing for three touchdowns against Menlo.
Dukes, who is closing in on a 2,000-yard rushing season for Palma, has piled up nearly 1,100 yards in seven career postseason games with 14 touchdowns.
“I can’t say enough about Eli Dukes,” Carnazzo said. “Job Barroso and Luke Mahler were dominate on the offensive line. And we made some key stops when we needed to on defense.”
None bigger than Dominic Chaidez’s interception at the 6-yard line with 1:50 left in a 24-21 game, halting a potential game-winning drive by the No. 6 seeded Knights (8-4).
“That was an incredible interception,” Carnazzo said.
Pinned inside its own 5-yard line after a penalty, Carnazzo was able to burn time off the clock before being forced to punt with 18 seconds left.
“We sent the punt team in,” Carnazzo said. “We talked about it as a staff. We didn’t like what we saw, so we called a time out.”
What Carnazzo decided was to take an intentional safety and kick the ball off from the 20 instead of the shadows of his own goal post.
“We told Eli to run around back there and take as much time as he could before running out of the end zone,” Carnazzo said. “He burned another eight seconds off the clock.”
The decision roughly meant 30 plus yards in field position, pinning Menlo inside its 40-yard line with 12 seconds left. One completion got them across midfield with one second remaining, with time for a ‘Hail Mary” pass that feel incomplete.
