There were plenty of positives to be gleaned from the Palisades High football team’s 33-15 loss at Santa Monica last Friday, starting with the Dolphins’ opening drive. A week removed from gaining only one first-half first down in a 24-21 loss at El Camino Real, Pali stormed out of the gates against the Vikings with a 68-yard drive, capped off by Arte’ Miura’s 14-yard touchdown run with 5:24 to play. But perhaps the underlying story was the Dolphins’ subsequent drives on offense. Time and again, Pali proved it could move the ball against its cross-town rivals, but couldn’t consistently convert yards into points, as Samo claimed its eight straight win against the Dolphins. Early in the second quarter with the score 7-7, the Dolphins marched 61 yards, using first-down runs from quarterback Nathan Dodson and fullbacks Justin Sinclair and Mylz Blake to reach the SamoHi six-yard line; on third-and-goal, a botched pitch gave the ball back to the Vikings. Then, trailing 19-7 late in the third, Palisades strung together more than 10 plays and traveled 55 yards to Samo’s 13-yard line; but faulty execution caused the Dolphins to turn the ball over on downs. ’That was the story, getting down into the red zone and not converting,’ Palisades head coach Perry Jones said. ‘We got down there three times and didn’t come away with a score. If we had scored twice, it would’ve made it a much different game. ’Not to take anything away from Santa Monica’s defense, but we drove on them at will and only punted one time. Our offense is functioning well, but we shot ourselves in the foot. We were able to move the ball on them, something we haven’t been able to do in the past. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to punch it in.’ So, while things may still be a work in progress for Pali (0-2), the indicators of progress are there’starting with the team’s mentality. ’In the past against Santa Monica, there was a little bit of intimidation factor,’ Jones said. ‘There used to be an underlying current that their program was head and shoulders above ourselves. But this year, that didn’t happen. It was pretty impressive to score right away. And we continued our game plan the rest of the way and didn’t back off, we just came up short.’ Tomorrow, the task doesn’t get any easier for the Dolphins, as Crespi comes to the Stadium by the Sea for Pali’s for a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Celts (3-0) are regarded as one of the Top 10 teams in the Southern California and boast gaudy wins over Dominguez (48-6), Jordan (64-0) and Clovis West (42-28). One key for the Dolphins against the team from Encino? Buckling down on defense. ’It’s really going to come down to: ‘Can we slow them down and can we get quality stops?” Jones said. ‘It’s not that we’re small, it’s that our team speed isn’t great. Our defense is going to have to adjust. ’The good news is we have a structure in place. Sometimes when other teams realize a defense doesn’t have a structure, they can exploit it. Ours is brand new, but we’ve already had better results [than in the past]. It takes some time to get it going, but we’re getting there.’ Jones also noted improvement across the senior-laden defensive line, including tackles Chris Rose and Roman Thomas (who started on the offensive line last year) and end Corey Richardson, who gained invaluable experience playing against Samo’s offensive tackle Chad Wheeler, who has committed to USC. Richardson knocked down a key pass in the game and Jones said that he was ‘very encouraged’ with the 6-foot-2, 215-pound rusher’s performance against the blue-chip Samo prospect. Offensively, the Dolphins are sorting through a handful of injuries. Dodson (shoulder) and Sinclair (undisclosed) likely will not play, while Miura is a game-time decision. That means more time for the quarterback-fullback combo of junior Kevin Acosta and senior Mylz Blake. Blake shed multiple tackles on a 28-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter against Samo (he finished with nearly 100 yards), while Acosta looked confident under center in his fourth-quarter action. ‘He’s a cool, calm and collected kid,’ said Jones of the 5-foot-6, 155-pound Acosta. ‘He’s used to running the option and we like how he distributes the ball and makes his reads on the edge. It’s a chance for him to see what he’s made off, but we expect pretty good things from him.’
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