Photo by Craig Weston
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Bragging rights are at stake when the Palisades Charter High School varsity football team faces its toughest test of the regular season Friday night, September 22, in its annual Sunset Showdown against Brentwood.
The game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Brentwood School (100 S. Barrington Place). The JV game will be Saturday, September 23, at 10 a.m. This will be Palisades’ first road game after starting with four straight at home.
Coming off their bye week, the Dolphins (3-1) have had extra time to prepare for the second of three rivalry games this fall. In the first on August 31 Granada Hills snapped a nine-game losing streak in the Charter Bowl with a 26-10 victory at Stadium by the Sea.
The Eagles (3-2) enter the matchup with momentum after a 31-13 triumph over St. Anthony in Long Beach in which quarterback Boone Lourd threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns. The senior will be making his third Showdown start, having passed for 244 yards and two touchdowns in 2021, and 132 yards and three touchdowns last year.
His older brother Cole (now a backup at University of Texas) quarterbacked Brentwood for the first two matchups against Palisades, winning the first and losing the second.
Palisades signal caller Roman La Scala was efficient in last year’s meeting, completing 20 of his 29 pass attempts for 229 yards and two touchdowns—good enough for a 115.4 QB rating. The senior has thrown for 642 yards and six touchdowns with three interceptions so far this season.
In addition to strong play at the quarterback position, both teams have elite receivers. After missing the last two games with an ankle injury, Palisades wideout Braydon Sanford is practicing this week and hopes to be back in the lineup Friday. The senior captain is the deep threat with seven catches for 167 yards (a 23.9 yards per catch average) and three touchdowns.
Brentwood counters with senior tight end Dylan Karz, who has established himself as Lourd’s No. 1 target with 36 receptions for 517 yards and eight touchdowns, including 11 catches versus Ontario Christian on September 1. A four-year varsity player, he has 119 career receptions for 1,590 yards.
The rivalry was established six years ago when then Dolphins coach Tim Hyde sought a replacement for Palisades’ longstanding grudge game against Santa Monica and reached out to Eagles pilot Jake Ford, who each year has several players from the Palisades in his program.
The two schools, located six miles apart off Sunset Boulevard, are a study in contrasts as Brentwood is a small private campus and represents the CIF Southern Section while Palisades is a large public school competing in the LA City Section.
One side story to this edition is that Palisades’ first-year coach Dylen Smith was previously an assistant to Ford for nine years at Brentwood and was on the Eagles’ sideline for their win last fall.
“I enjoyed being on Jake’s staff, I learned a lot being around him and he’s my mentor,” Smith said. “As a matter of fact, he’s the one who texted me about the Pali position. It’s safe to say I know him well and he knows me, so it’s going to be difficult to surprise each other, although I’m sure he has a few trick plays up his sleeve.”
Three of the four matchups thus far have been decided by a touchdown or less, the lone exception being two years ago when Daniel Anoh rushed for a school single-game record 292 yards and four touchdowns in the Dolphins’ convincing 18-point win on their way to an undefeated regular season.
Smith’s biggest concern heading into the contest is the dual threat ability of Lourd, who can run and throw with equal effectiveness. He has 15 total touchdowns (11 passing, four rushing) and averages 13.2 yards per completion.
“We’ll need to have a spy on him at all times and do our best to keep him in the pocket,” Smith said.
Calpreps projects Brentwood as a nine-point favorite, but in a rivalry game anything goes.
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