LOS GATOS — Los Gatos stared down the most dominant football player in the Central Coast Section and countered with offensive firepower of its own to beat undefeated Palma 45-21 on Friday night in a CCS Division I semifinal.
By containing Palma running back Eli Dukes, relatively speaking, Los Gatos (9-3) was able to swing momentum to its favor and advance to the championship game for the third consecutive season, where the Wildcats will face Open Division runner-up Serra.
Dukes, the section’s rushing and touchdown leader, scored three times and rushed for 178 yards on 31 carries. But Dukes’ yards per carry average of 5.7 was his lowest of the season – he came in at 11.8 – and was indicative of the difficulties in facing a defense whose primary purpose was to dole out punishment to No. 13.
“Our goal was to keep him inside the hashes and pound him,” Los Gatos senior linebacker Tyler Purcell said. “I feel like we beat him up pretty good.”
Dukes closed his junior season with 2,414 yards rushing and 37 touchdowns after entering the weekend ranked No. 3 in the state in touchdowns and No. 5 in rushing yards.
“I’m in awe every Saturday morning when I pull out the film and watch,” Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo said.
With another year to go in his high school career, Dukes has 5,677 rushing yards and 75 touchdowns and will spend the first day of his off-season on the sidelines as a guest of Stanford at Saturday’s Big Game, with an offer from the Cardinal, as well as Oregon State and UC Davis.
“They were more physical than most of the teams we played this year,” Dukes said of Los Gatos. “But I was still super confident we could move the ball on them.”
For a little over a quarter, that was the case, with Palma (11-1) taking a 14-7 lead after the Chieftains’ first two series. But that was before Grayson Doslak scored the first of his four touchdowns for Los Gatos to tie the score, with help from a 36-yard pass from quarterback/punter Callum Schweitzer to Devonte Troutt on a fake punt.
Still, Palma had the ball and momentum and a chance to retake the lead when it was struck with a double whammy – a holding penalty compounded by a dead-ball personal foul. Instead of the ball at the Los Gatos 36 after a 12-yard Dukes run, Palma faced first-and-34 at its own 28.
A Palma punt led to a go-ahead Los Gatos touchdown on a Doslak 5-yard run and Dukes’ fumble on the next series led to a field goal – Efe Acar’s first of the year – from 28 yards on the final play of the half.
On the first series of the second half, Palma left-handed QB Patrick Driscoll aired out a deep pass toward the end zone off a play-action fake to Dukes, only for Hudson Schrader to intercept the pass and return it 94 yards for a touchdown and a 31-14 Los Gatos lead.
“I kick myself for taking a shot,” Carnazzo said. “Pick six … Those are the kind of things that will keep me up all night.”
From there, Palma was forced out of its specialty – its run game – and had to go to the air. And, while on offense, Los Gatos kept its foot on the pedal, wearing out the Chieftain defense. Schweitzer had the luxury of throwing to game-changers like Troutt and Max Thomas, or handing off to a variety of backs such as Jacob Gallagher (seven carries, 91 yards) and Doslakk (15 carries, 72). Los Gatos rushed for 195 yards on 31 carries and Schweitzer completed 10 of 14 passes for 146 yards.
No Wildcat jumps out dramatically on film, Carnozzo said, but so many can do damage.
“It’s a special group that really has bought into our mantra of playing for one another,” said Los Gatos’ Mark Krail, seeking his third CCS title as the Wildcats coach. “I said, ‘Play with love in your heart and look around, because we’re not going to get this for much longer.’
“People get tired of me talking about family and all that stuff, but that’s how I live. The gift that I get is we get to keep this group together and write another chapter. Tonight was Chapter 12. Next week is Chapter 13.”