Down and Distance

Pali High Football Smashes Huntington Park 48-0 in City Playoff Opener

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

In the days leading up to Friday’s City Division I playoff opener Palisades High football players insisted there would be no lingering effects of their 46-point loss to archrival Venice in their league finale one week before.   

The Dolphins produced the most efficient half of the season and scored touchdowns on all seven of their possessions over the first two quarters en route to a 48-0 shutout of Huntington Park—a game reminiscent of their 60-21 blowout of South Gate in the Open Division quarterfinals last fall.

“I wasn’t sure how we’d respond after getting our butts kicked but the kids took that loss to heart and didn’t want to let that happen again on our own field,” head coach Chris Hyduke said. “This is the playoffs—it’s win or go home.”

After stopping the Spartans on fourth down at their own 45, Palisades needed four plays to score the only points it would need, with Roman La Scala faking a handoff and trotting into the end zone from six yards out.

Linebacker Rowan Flynn recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff     and two plays later Chris Washington plowed across the goal line from the 1-yard line to make it 14-0. Huntington Park (5-6) fumbled again, this time at its own 38, and three plays later La Scala threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Sean Grier. Washington ended Palisades’ next drive with a two-yard run but an 85-yard kickoff return gave the 14th-seeded Spartans a first-and-goal at the Palisades 3-yard line. Matt Spoonamore recovered a fumble on first down and on the next play Washington broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage, bounced to the outside and raced down the sideline for a 96-yard touchdown that put the game out of reach early in the second quarter. A Jovon Alexander interception set up Harrison Carter’s seven-yard touchdown run and Mikael King-Haagen turned a down-and-out from back-up quarterback Zachary Lifton into an 81-yard touchdown that completed the scoring with 2:05 left in the first half.

“I knew by the way they were lined up I just had to beat one guy and it would be a touchdown,” Washington said of his 96-yarder. “The Venice  game is in the past and the coaches have been telling us to take it one  week at a time and just focus on the next opponent. It was important to  get up on them early so they knew   they weren’t going to win.”       

The second half, played under a running clock, gave the second and third stringers a chance to show what they could do and they took pride in preserving the goose egg—the Dolphins’ first in the postseason since blanking Carson 41-0 in 2016 under previous coach Tim Hyde. It was also Palisades’ largest margin of victory in the playoffs since beating Canoga Park by 50 points in 2017.

The third-seeded Dolphins (8-3) got all the inspiration they needed from Life Experience Coach Joe Spector’s pre-game words and seeing former Palisades quarterbacks Gabe Galef and P.J. Hurst on the sideline. Next up is their first-ever meeting with Metro League winner and sixth-seeded Dymally (9-2) at Stadium by the Sea tonight.

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