First & 10: Ready for Their Kickoff

PALISADES HIGH FOOTBALL PREVIEW

Ask any player in the Palisades High football program what the goal is for this season and the answer you’ll hear over and over is to get better each and every game.

It sounds simple – and it is – but when all is said and done, that is how head coach Tim Hyde measures his team’s success.

“One thing we really don’t talk about is that we have to win so many games – we just talk about improving,” Hyde said. “Our goal is to be a better team at the end of the season than we are at the beginning. Whatever that amounts to in wins and losses I have no idea, but I know last year we were a better team by far in our last game against Garfield than we were in our first game against Marshall. We want to get better each and every play, each and every practice, each and every game and we’ll see where we are at the end.”

The Dolphins finished 7-4 and were a play or two away from reaching the quarterfinals of the City Section Division I playoffs in Hyde’s first season and confidence is high heading into his second, which gets underway tomorrow at 3 p.m. against Marshall High in Los Feliz.

“If you look back at the success Pete Carroll had at USC, he never talked about winning Pac-10 championships, he just talked about improving week to week. The rest will take care of itself. We grew into a hard-nosed football team as the season went on and I’m expecting the same this year. Ray Elie and Christian Clark are my strength coaches and we take pride in our conditioning. Getting stronger and having the opportunity to win in the fourth quarter were our trademarks last year and I expect that to be the case again this season.”

At a school where winning championships is commonplace in so many sports, the football program has long been mired in mediocrity. Palisades has never won the Western League since it was formed in 1999 (prior to that Pali High played in the eight-team Coastal Conference), but this might be the Dolphins’ best chance to do so in more than a decade.

“It’s all about developing players,” Hyde said. “I wrote that down Day One. We don’t have a Pop Warner system here in town, we don’t have guys who’ve been playing football for five or six years who know how to do things. We’ll know who the league champion is at 9:30 p.m. on November 7. That’s a long ways off. Until then, it’s all about getting better every week.”

Before his team’s practice last Friday night, Hyde talked about the players to watch this season:

OFFENSE

The Dolphins will display versatility behind an offensive line consisting of senior center Alex Clarke (6-foot-1, 235 pounds), senior right tackle Marvin Williams (6-2, 255), junior right guard Dominick Carrasco  (6-1, 275), junior left guard Dennis Zavatski (5-10, 180) and senior left tackle J.P. Flaherty (6-3, 225). Senior Eros Valencia (6-0, 240), who started at right guard before getting injured last year, will also see significant playing time.

In the backfield will be junior quarterback P.J.Hurst, the backup last season, senior running back Brad Boorstin and junior fullback Willy Rosenfeld, with senior Desmond Box also expected to get his share of carries.

The starting wideouts will be Herbert Acosta and Quincy Cowherd, with fellow senior Dhaamir Lomax also  in the mix. The slot receiver will be junior Ryan Ashmore and the tight end will be senior James Mann.

“We’re going to be a hybrid of a bunch of things,” Hyde said. “We can go four or five wide and three backs, we can go two tight ends, we can run a true pro style offense with two backs, two wide receivers and a tight end, we can do shotgun, we’re going to be under center, you name it. We have kids that allow us to do multiple things off the same plays.”

Acosta, one of the Dolphins’ captains, believes the team’s ability to run the ball will create mismatches in the passing game for Hurst and his receivers.

“P.J.’s ceiling is very high,” he said. “He knows each of us well, he knows where to put the ball and we have talent across the board. You can feel the intensity building and we’re all excited to get the season started.”

Boorstin, the other offensive captain, agreed that the Dolphins’ balance makes them hard to stop.

“We all know the plays now, the O-line is great, they hit and block, and our running backs have always been strong,” said Boorstin, the team’s second-leading rusher last season. “I love it when we pass because that opens up the running lanes for us.”

DEFENSE

The Dolphins should apply consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks with an athletic front four featuring ends E.B. Odeh (a 5-foot-10, 235-pound senior captain) and junior Ethan Lewis (5-10, 205) and senior tackles Kenny Jones (6-1, 265) and Corey Rose (6-1, 290). Senior Evan Goldstein (5-11, 205) will get 50 percent of the snaps as a co-starter with Lewis.

Starting at linebacker will be junior Alec Simpson (a four-star recruit), sophomore Mario Lofton and senior Lofton Mason.

Patrolling the secondary will be cornerbacks Aaron Butler (a sophomore) and Justin Mason (a junior) and safeties Lomax (who was second team All-League last season) and captain Duane McBroom, whom Hyde regards as one of the best football players he has ever coached.

“Right now it’s about dotting the i’s, crossing the t’s and putting the final details on everything,” Odeh said. “We pushed each other to the limit in practice. We wanted   to cause havoc and the offense wanted to protect P.J. Turnovers and getting off the field on third down — that’s what we’re trying to get better at on defense.”

McBroom has seen the intensity in practice grow since the Dolphins’ Aug. 22 scrimmage against San Fernando was canceled.

“It’s time for us to walk the walk,” McBroom said. “There’s a saying that in order to play defense you have to hate defense.We’re taking it one game at a time. We’ve grown a lot and now we have to go 110 miles per hour.”     

SPECIAL TEAMS

Having one of the best kickers in the state is a luxury few coaches enjoy, but Hyde is one of the lucky ones. Senior Ethan Erickson’s leg converted 35 of 37 extra points, six field goals and 38 touchbacks last fall, although the distance and hang time on his punts has improved most. Adding to his success rate will be reliable  holder Acosta and long snapper Aria Mahinfar.

Ashmore and sophomore Jake Taitelman are the Dolphins’ sure-handed punt returners while Ashmore and Cowherd will try to break some long kickoff returns.

SCHEDULE

After Marshall tomorrow, the Dolphins travel to Santa Monica for the schools’ annual intersectional rivalry, then wrap up their nonleague slate with home games against Canoga Park, Granada Hills and Harvard-Westlake — all teams Palisades beat last year.

As for the Western League, the four teams that played last Friday were outscored by a combined 186-49. Still, Hyde thinks the league as a whole is very competitive and considers defending champion Venice the favorite even after the Gondoliers’ 70-23 home  loss to Chaminade.

“This is still Venice’s league to win until someone proves otherwise,” Hyde said. “Coach [Angelo] Gasca has built a great program, those kids know how to win and if anyone thinks Venice is down they’re sorely mistaken. Fairfax and Hamilton should also be strong.”

JUNIOR VARSITY 

Coach Ray Marsden’s squad has four Thursday games, starting with today’s season opener at Los Angeles Marshall (kickoff at 3 p.m. in Los Feliz).

A big and experienced offensive line should give ample time for sophomore quarterback Jonah  Manheim to find receivers like Jonathan Melendez and Jason Frazier.

Other key returners include middle linebacker Andres Garcia, running back/linebacker Oscar Romero, and linemen Kyle Foster and Gabe Stauff.

The Dolphins went 4-6 last season and ended with three consecutive Western League defeats.