Game of the Week: Dukes, defense, lead Palma past Soquel in CCS playoffs
SALNAS — A unified front following the game — that its best football has yet to be played, was echoed from players and coaches as undefeated Palma gathered together.
Perhaps.
Yet, for the first time all season, the Chieftains defense pitched a shutout, while the offense turned to a familiar face in Eli Dukes in a 28-0 win Friday over Soquel in the Central Coast Section Open/Division I playoffs at Rabobank.
“I’m hoping we still have better football in front of us,” Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo said. “We’re excited to be in the position we’re in. The competition ramps up next week.”
Seeded No. 4, the Gabilan Division champions Chieftains will put their 11-game winning streak on the line, traveling to No. 3 seed Los Gatos — who knocked off St. Francis 14-7 — next Friday in the semifinals.
Champions of the Peninsula Bay Division, the Wildcats are 8-3 overall on the season, having gone undefeated in league play. One of their losses in the preseason was a 42-40 decision to Soquel in their season opener.
“Simply because we have game film of them when they played Soquel, we have seen them,” Carnazzo said. “It’s your typical Los Gatos team. They are a WCAL-type school. Very physical and disciplined.”
The two teams haven’t met since the 2007 Open Division playoffs, when the Wildcats turned a reverse play with 1:20 remaining into a 56-yard touchdown pass in a 20-14 win over Palma.
“David Fales (drafted by the Chicago Bears) was our quarterback,” Carnazzo said. “We lost the game on a reverse pass in the last minute.”
Attention was already on Los Gatos the minute the bus returned to campus after Friday’s win, in which the Chieftains beat Soquel for the second time in three weeks.
Having ended the Knights run of 17 straight Gabilan Division wins with a 28-21 victory on Halloween, Palma turned to its defense to record its first shutout of the season.
“The score wasn’t indicative of the game,” insisted Carnazzo. “We understand that Soquel was lacking their quarterback and other pieces. But we were missing pieces as well. No one is at full strength at this point.”
Carnazzo was talking about Soquel playing the game with quarterback Sam Whelan, who suffered a season-ending lower leg injury in the first quarter against Palma in the regular season meeting.
The Knights, however, marched down field on their opening drive, moving the ball to the 12-yard line before Cooper Dukes broke up a pass attempt on fourth down to halt the drive.
Momentum turned in a heartbeat as the Chieftains offensive line went to work in creating holes for Eli Dukes, who chalked up 248 yards on 27 carries, accounting for all four of the team’s touchdowns.
“I’ve been saying all year I sleep better at night because our offensive and defensive lines will keep us in any game,” Carnazzo said. “Our quarterback had two key contributions on fourth down to keep drives alive.”
Calling himself a conservative coach, Carnazzo put the ball into the hands of quarterback Patrick Driscoll twice on fourth down, with the junior rushing for a first down and completing a pass to Chase Amaral to extend a drive.
“I’m old school,” Carnazzo said. “Normally, that’s not me. But we had the ball on our side. Those are momentum swings when you convert them. It allowed us to chip away at the clock a little more.”
Carnazzo has been known to take risks in the past, such as in his first season when he went for two in the final 43 seconds of a 15-14 win over Oak Grove in the CCS Division I title game in 2000.
The feeling Friday was if Palma didn’t convert, the defense was dominating the game behind linebacker Wyatt Deverick, stopping the Knights on fourth down four times.
“We stopped them on two occasions on fourth down and took over at midfield,” said Carnazzo, who guided Palma to its first 10-0 regular season since 1997.
Driscoll did just enough through the air to keep Soquel from putting 10 in the box, as Eli Dukes went over 200 yards on the ground for the fifth straight game, adding touchdown runs of 15, 5, 24 and 7 yards for Palma.
“He was a beast,” said Carnazzo, who took the Chieftains to a State Division III title in 2023. “We hand him the ball and great things happen. There’s nothing else to say about this kid.”
Dukes, who has offers on the table from Oregon State, Cal and Stanford, has rushed for 2,293 yards and 31 touchdowns on 196 carries, averaging nearly 12 yards each time he touches the ball.
“I told him tonight I didn’t know if I was more proud of his effort in AP history or the 248 yards,” Carnazzo said. “The kid is taking five AP classes.”
Dukes spent most of the night running behind tackle Kaden Colon and guard Luke Mahler, who dominated play up front for Palma, who finished 352 yards in total offense.
“We did turn the ball over twice,” Carnazzo said. “We had some penalties that we need to eliminate. Those are the things we can improve upon — have to improve upon moving forward.”
