No Comfort at Home

Nothing went according to plan for the Palisades High varsity football team last Friday night. The Dolphins had taken a step forward in their loss to Santa Monica the previous week, but took two steps back in their home opener against Lynwood last Friday. The final score was Lynwood 28, Palisades 8, but the gap between the two teams would have been wider had the Knights not turned the ball over three times inside the red zone and had two touchdowns called back on penalties. “We’ve scored 17 points in three games and that’s not going to get it done,” PaliHi Coach Kelly Loftus said. “This game really exposed how thin we are. Injuries have really taken their toll.” True, Palisades (0-3) was again without key starters, including defensive captain Casey Jordan and lineman Bladimir Martinez, but lack of execution hurt the Dolphins more than lack of depth. “We don’t get downhill on either side of the ball,” Loftus said. “We’re not aggressive enough and as a result we’re getting pushed off the line of scrimmage. We have to correct that–and fast.” Making his second consecutive start after sitting out the season opener with an ankle strain, quarterback Preon Morgan rushed 16 times for 51 yards and completed 8 of 13 passes for 99 yards. However, he had two passes intercepted and lost a fumble. Kemonta Reed had 35 yards in six carries and Kevin Mann made four catches for 68 yards. Palisades’ only points came on a 4-yard touchdown run by Malcolm Creer and subsequent two-point conversion scramble by Morgan with nine minutes left in the third quarter. Unfortunately, the Dolphins were already down 28-0–far too big a deficit to overcome, especially considering they gained a total of 62 yards and three first downs in the first half. A bigger concern for Loftus, however, was the lack of tackling by his defense. Lynwood (1-2) amassed well over 250 yards on the ground, the major damage being inflicted by Desmond Williams (109 yards in 13 carries), Julius Childs (61 yards in nine carries) and Deshawn Foxx (54 yards in eight carries). “We had guys in position to make the play, but we were reaching, we weren’t wrapping up and we weren’t getting low enough,” Loftus said. “We should have been stopping them in the backfield and instead they were ripping off 10 or 15 yards a pop.” Hakeem Jawanza led the team with nine tackles, Joe Brandon had eight and Jeremy Smith added seven. Another problem area was special teams. Kicker Alex Anastasi shanked several punts and Palisades failed to execute a pooch kick to open the game. “We’re not a good enough team to give our opponent the ball at midfield every time and expect to get away with it,” Loftus said. “We have to get healthy and we have to get better if we want to turn things around.” Quarterback James Grisom attempted eight passes (completing three) for Lynwood, which was flagged 13 times for 135 yards.