Dolphins Dominate Fairfax on Senior Night

Palisades High quarterback P.J. Hurst couldn’t have picked a more perfect time to play his best game of the season.

Knowing a playoff berth could be on the line, he completed nine of 10 passes for 263 yards and five touchdowns and ran for another score to lead the varsity football team to one of its most lopsided wins ever at Stadium by the Sea.By crushing Fairfax 61-7 in their regular season finale, the Dolphins finished with a winning record and forced a three-way tie for second place in the Western League.

The 28 seniors were honored in a ceremony before the opening kickoff and once the game started Hurst went about making sure each of his talented senior receivers had a catch in his last regular season contest.

“We wanted to get a rhythm going and we were all on time with each other in practice this week, so we wanted to air it out to our athletes on the outside,” said Hurst, who reached the 2,000-yard milestone in the third quarter and sat out the fourth. “We’ve shown that we can score a lot of points when we all come out to play.”

Hurst got the Dolphins on the scoreboard with a 12-yard strike to senior wideout Herbert Acosta with just over three minutes gone.

“Herbert and I know each other very well, I put it where only he could catch it and he made me look good,” Hurst said.

On the first play of Palisades’ next drive, Desmond Box burst up the middle for a 50-yard score and the rout was on. Box added a one-yard touchdown to make it 42-7 late in the second quarter and finished with 107 yards in 13 carries to give Palisades a 1,000-yard rusher in back-to-back seasons.

After his 21-yard touchdown pass to junior Gersan Osorio late in the first quarter, Hurst added scoring tosses of 65 and 30 yards to senior Quincy Cowherd, then capped off his career-best performance with a 45-yard touchdown pass to another senior, Dhaamir Lomax, late in the third quarter. Lomax had three receptions for 91 yards and senior tight end James Mann − one of Hurst’s most reliable targets all season − also caught a pass.

“I told the kids that you’re only guaranteed 10 games, not 11, so leave it all on the field and see what happens,” Pali High Coach Tim Hyde said. “We had our best week of practice maybe all season and it carried over into the game.”

Ethan Erickson kicked a 37-yard field goal to close out the scoring in the fourth quarter.

While Palisades’ offense was scoring at will, its defense was focused on containing Lions tailback Ramses Hernandez, one of the top rushers in the City Section. He gained 150 yards in 17 carries and scored the Lions’ only touchdown but had to sit out the second half with a pulled Achilles.

Linebacker Alec Simpson once again led the Dolphins with 10 tackles − putting him over the century mark in that category this season − and added his first interception in the second quarter to thwart a Lions drive in the red zone.

“We swarmed to the ball,” Simpson said. “Stopping the run was the first thing we wanted to do. Stop the run and look for the pass next. I thought we did a great job coverage-wise also.”

Ryan Ashmore also had an interception at cornerback and Quinn Perry had five tackles, including one on the Fairfax punter in the end zone for a safety in the third quarter.

The 61 points is the most Palisades has scored since a 63-36 win at Hamilton in 2010 under previous head coach Perry Jones.

“We’re a very tough team and we’re ready for anyone in the City,” Simpson said. “We had some losses that should’ve been wins, but we’re going to play very hard and do our best to win some games in the playoffs.”