Dolphins Football Season Concludes With Gardena Loss

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Palisades Charter High School football coach Dylen Smith was so emotional after the last Thursday, November 9, City Open Division quarterfinal game that he did not even address his team in the postgame huddle.

“I couldn’t even speak,” the Dolphins’ first year coach admitted. “My eyes were tearing up.”

Had he been able to, Smith would have told his players how proud he was of them after they battled to the last second of a 14-10 loss to Gardena that ended the Dolphins’ season.

Entering the contest, Gardena’s defense was regarded as perhaps the best in the section, but on this night, Palisades matched the Panthers’ grit and intensity with a stout defensive effort of its own, and as a result, neither team scored a point in the second half.

“We played like I thought we could—we saw some holes in their defense we could exploit and we executed the game plan,” Smith said. “A few mishaps cost us and at the end of the day, we beat ourselves.”

Third-seeded Gardena (10-1) was fired up to host a playoff game after earning a share of the Marine League title—its first league championship in 49 years—and after Palisades went three-and-out on its first possession, the Panthers struck first on a 33-yard scoring pass from Isaiah Kim to Johan Wallace.

It took the sixth-seeded Dolphins (7-3) less than two minutes to respond. Quarterback Roman La Scala took advantage of confusion in Gardena’s secondary and found wide receiver Jaden Williams wide open for a 63-yard touchdown to tie the game midway through the first quarter.

Gardena regained the lead 14-7 after a long, methodical drive capped by Myles Mason’s five-yard run with 23 seconds left in the first quarter.

The first of several missed opportunities for Palisades occurred on the ensuing drive when the Dolphins marched to the Gardena one-yard line, only to settle for Kellan Ford’s 23-yard field goal following a false start penalty and an incompletion.

An untimed down at the end of the first half gave the Dolphins a chance to pull within one point, but Ford’s 33-yard attempt was blocked and Palisades headed to the locker room down 14-10.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I believe we have the best defense in the City,” Gardena coach Monty Gilbreath said. “This feels really good. I ask a lot of these kids and it’s good to see them get the reward. We shut teams down. That’s what we do.”

Gardena got the ball first to start the second half but was unable to gain a first down. Palisades drove from its own 25 to the opponent’s 24 before Zakye Marcus intercepted a pass at the 17.

The Panthers marched 70 yards in 14 plays, but failed to widen their lead when a 34-yard field goal try by Angel Munive hooked left early in the fourth quarter.

Two plays later, Palisades had a chance to take the lead but a dropped pass on a bomb forced them to punt. Gardena drove to midfield, and a punt rolled dead at Palisades’ eight-yard line to set up the Dolphins’ final frenzied drive.

Twice they converted fourth downs, and they advanced as far as Gardena’s 22 before La Scala was sacked for a three-yard loss. On third down, his pass over the middle was dropped by defender Andrew Aldana at the 15, giving the Western League champions one last play.

On fourth-and-14 at the Gardena 25 with 12.8 seconds to go, Gardena blitzed and linebacker Torey Pierce hit La Scala just as he released the ball. The pass fell incomplete at the goal line and two kneel downs later the Panthers celebrated their first postseason victory since winning the City Division III title in 2019.

Gardena travels to No. 2 Garfield in the semifinals Friday, November 17, while top-seeded and reigning Open Division winner Birmingham hosts No. 4 Carson, the Marine League co-champ with Gardena.

Smith may have been at a loss for words, but beloved Life Experience Coach Joe Spector had plenty to say afterward to the dejected but proud bunch: “You left it all on the field and you’ll be successes in life because quitters never win and winners never quit.”

La Scala completed 13 of 28 passes for 187 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Braydon Sanford caught five passes for 74 yards. Teralle Watson ran 16 times for 44 yards for Palisades, which reached the City Division I final last year under previous coach Chris Hyduke.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I took the job—I just knew Pali had lost a lot of guys from last year and it was an inexperienced group,” Smith said. “I couldn’t be happier with the kids buying into a new system—which is a difficult system to learn. We won our league and qualified for the highest playoff division, so as much as this loss stings, overall it was a productive first season.”