Marshalling Their Efforts

Pali High Football Opens the Season with Impressive 40-12 Road Victory over the Barristers

It took one quarter for the Palisades High varsity football team to get rolling last Friday afternoon, but once it did there was no stopping the Dolphins in a 40-12 nonleague victory over Los Angeles Marshall in Los Feliz.

“It feels good to win, especially Game One,” Coach Tim Hyde said. “Everything I told the kids came true. It was hot, about 90 degrees and it was a dogfight. We made some mental errors but we had a lot of new guys play and we’re going to be okay.”

If junior quarterback P.J. Hurst was nervous in his first varsity start he didn’t show it, completing five of nine passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns — the first a 55-yarder to Dhaamir Lomax late in the first quarter and the second a 26-yarder to Quincy Cowherd late in the third quarter.

“The first one was just a short hitch and Dhaamir made me look good and on the second one Coach [Christian] Clark gets the credit,” Hurst said of his touchdowns. “We ran the same play in the first half and he noticed the safety cheating to the front side so he said if we go back to it I’ll have the back side open and I did.”

Running back Desmond Box rushed for 141 yards in just eight carries and delivered the knockout punch with a 65-yard touchdown that gave the Dolphins a 33-6 lead with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t have any scrimmages leading up to this so we started off a little slow, but it didn’t make a big difference,” Box said. “We expected to score way more than we did. We had a lot of ups and downs this game, but it’s all stuff we can correct next week.”

Kicker Ethan Erickson made field goals of 31 and 40 yards, missed a 34-yard attempt and converted five of six extra point tries, fullback Willy Rosenfeld scored on a two-yard run shortly before halftime and Nelson Aiwize capped the scoring on a six-yard run with 13 seconds left.

“At the snap of the ball I pushed the DB vertical to make it seem like I was going up the field, I broke down on my rout, turned to the outside and where I knew it would be easier to get defenders to miss,” Lomax said, describing  his touchdown catch. “When I got to the 20-yard line two defenders were coming at a great angle, I stiff-armed one and then used all the speed training we’ve been doing to manuever past the second and from there it was daylight.”

Tight end James Mann had three receptions for 31 yards and Aiwize had 44 yards in four carries. Center Alex Clarke called the game “a good test” and thought the offensive line did solid work. “If anything, we need to work on our hand placement and just identifying our blocks,” he said.

The Dolphins’ defense played physical and clogged Marshall’s running lanes all game. Cornerback Justin Mason had 9.5 tackles, linebacker Alec Simpson had 7.5 tackles and 1.5 sacks, Lomax forced a fumble at safety and E.B. Odeh and Aaron Butler each added a sack.

“We felt the nerves in the first quarter for sure but after the first hit they were gone for me,” said Simpson, who is wearing No. 52 to honor his uncle Bob Bracco, who also wore the number and recently passed away from cancer. “I’m playing this season to him.”