Palisades High’s varsity football team may have lost last Friday night’s nonleague game against Santa Monica, but it learned something in the process: Raymond Elie is not your traditional pocket passer. Sure he can throw all right standing still, but against the Vikings he proved to be far more effective on the run. The Dolphins’ junior left-hander completed 13 of 23 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns and his performance not only earned respect from teammates, it also convinced head coach Leo Castro to change Pali’s offensive gameplan. “In the first two quarters we weren’t moving the ball at all,” Castro said. “It was three-and-out every series and it was starting to look like the first game [against Sylmar]. So I finally decided to just open things up, run a two-minute spread offense and have some fun. I only wish we’d gone to it sooner.” With time winding down in the first half and Palisades trailing 14-0, Elie used his uncanny scrambling ability to engineer a seven-play, 73-yard drive, ending with a four-yard pass to wide receiver Ryan Henry for the Dolphins’ first touchdown of the season. Mitchell Schwartz was a stone wall on the offensive line, never once allowing his defender to slip by him. Baker had three receptions for 58 yards, Henry had three catches for 44 yards and Henry Argueta caught three passes for 36 yards. Robert Gillett rushed for 22 yards and intercepted a pass by Vikings’ quarterback Ryan Katz. Behind the running of Louis Adeyemi and E.J. Woods, Santa Monica (2-0) carried a 24-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Though it was able to move the ball consistently in the second half, Pali was its own worst enemy, losing a fumble at the Vikings’ two-yard line. Finally, with a minute left in the game, Elie found Deonte Baker in the corner of the end zone for another score. “We respect them and the athletes they have,” said SaMo head coach Michael Burnett, whose team plays Venice next. “We dominated them physically with our running game, but their quarterback caused us some problems. He’s a good player and we couldn’t contain him.” Santa Monica improved to 12-6-2 in an intersectional rivalry that began in 1979. If there is a soft part of the schedule for Palisades (0-2), it might be the next three weeks, starting with Friday’s nonleague game at South Gate. The frosh/soph game begins at 4, followed by the varsity at 7 p.m. Frosh/Soph Palisades hung tough with an older, bigger SaMo junior varsity team for three quarters until a 100-yard interception return on the first play of the fourth quarter propelled the visiting Vikings to a 20-0 victory. Dolphins quarterback Alan Ferguson completed 11 of 20 passes for 150 yards and Milton Strausberg caught six passes for 70 yards. Jerald Ingram added two catches for 17 yards. The game was delayed almost 30 minutes when Pali’s Lazarian Rankin broke his leg in a pileup and was taken by ambulance to Santa Monica UCLA hospital. Rankin will miss the rest of the season. “We doubled our yardage from the first game,” Pali head coach Calvin Parker said. “Mistakes are what beat us today. We’re 0-2 but we’re a tough 0-2 team. I say we’ll get a win Friday.”
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