Aptos High senior Nate Garcia recorded three touchdowns to help lift the Mariners past Palma in Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division action Oct. 11.
The Mariners earned their first win in league play, while the Chieftains—the defending State Division 4A champion—dropped to 0-3 this season.
“Anytime that you get to take down Palma, it’s always something to savor because that’s such a storied program,” Aptos head coach Zach Hewett said.
In terms of the bigger picture, Friday night’s victory also helped the Mariners keep their goal alive of earning a Central Coast Section playoff berth.
“We obviously really thought that this was a game that we could win and should win,” Hewett said. “The last few weeks, we made a lot of mistakes that were under our control. We didn’t make those same kinds of mistakes this week. It let us beat a pretty good team.”
Casey MacConnell, a senior, had more than 100 yards rushing and a huge interception on defense that stalled a potential scoring drive for Palma.
The Chieftains were driving inside Aptos’ 30-yard line when McConnell picked off an out route.
“It let us make sure they didn’t come away with any points on that drive,” Hewett said.
Aptos punted the ball following the turnover after Palma forced a three-and-out. Yet, Hewett counted the particular punt as a win because at that point it was a field position battle. Plus, they got to restart on defense.
Hewett also mentioned they had a hard time stopping Palma’s offense, which completed a long 50-yard pass for a touchdown.
But the main focus was Chieftains star running back Eli Dukes.
“The plan was to force Dukes to run up the middle, try to keep him from bouncing outside,” Hewett said. “We told the kids all week, we’re gonna live with whatever happens in the passing game against them, and we just have to be okay with that because we need to stop the run.”
The Mariners took a 28-24 late in the fourth quarter. Hewett said at that point they were feeling confident because he thought they had worn out Palma’s defensive front.
However, the Chieftains were able to move the ball downfield on an Aptos defensive unit that was playing feisty toward the end of the game.
“We called that defensive series really aggressively because we either wanted to make a big play and force a stop,or force a touchdown,” Hewett said.
Palma re-took the lead at 31-28 with four minutes remaining in the contest.
“We told them ‘Hey, we’re okay with this because we’ve got the ball,’” Hewett said. “We’ve got four minutes left. We’re gonna take the ball, we’re gonna march down the field and we’re gonna score, and that’s gonna be the game. That was the way it played out.”
Garcia punched in the go-ahead score that gave the Mariners the lead at 34-31, and the victory.
Aptos (4-3, 1-2) hosts Salinas on Oct. 18 at 7:30pm.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story depicted an image of Aptos High’s Joshua Bermio stating that he led the Mariners football team to victory against Palma. That is incorrect, as Bermio did not play in Friday’s game.
At Monte Vista Christian 25, Scotts Valley 23: Julian Pizarro knocked in a 34-yard field goal as time expired to help lift the Mustangs over the Falcons in a thrilling PCAL Mission–North Division battle Friday evening.
Pizarro had hit one earlier from the same distance late in the third quarter, and scored all of MVC’s points in the second half.
Dominic Pierini had 414 yards passing with three touchdowns, including a pair to Nico Downie and one to Gunner Sorensen.
Downie finished with a game-high 264 yards receiving on 13 receptions, while Sorensen hauled in nine receptions for 86 yards and 66 yards rushing on 14 carries. Fellow teammates Boston Ashe had five receptions for 42 yards and Jordan Ramirez caught six receptions for 22 yards.
Sorensen had a big game on defense with 11 tackles and recorded one interception. Rykin Resurreccion also had 11 tackles, while Iegor Moskalenko forced a fumble and Nic Colaprete was there to recover the loose ball.
MVC (3-4, 1-2) heads into a bye week and then hosts North Monterey County (4-2, 2-0) on Homecoming night Oct. 25 at 7:30pm.
At Pajaro Valley 49, Harbor 0: Alexavier Negrete had a team-best 129 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns on 15 carries for the Grizzlies in a thumping win over the Pirates in PCAL Santa Lucia Division play Oct. 12.
Adrain Mendoza had 63 yards rushing and one TD on four carries, Brian Flores had 36 yards rushing and one touchdown on five carries, and Brandon Lampon had 36 yards rushing and one touchdown on seven carries for Pajaro Valley.
Senior receiver Izaak Ocampo hauled in three receptions for 85 yards and a pair of TDs.
On defense, Isaias Villasana recorded one interceptions and a forced fumble for the Grizzles. Flores recovered one fumble and had one tackle for a loss of yards, and fellow teammate Ricky Rentiria had one interception.
Pajaro Valley (4-3, 3-0) plays at Stevenson (4-2, 3-0) on Oct. 19 at 2:30pm.
At Seaside 26, Watsonville 17: The Wildcatz have now dropped two straight in PCAL Mission–North Division play following a loss to the Spartans on Friday night. Watsonville (3-4, 1-2) plays at Scotts Valley (2-5, 1-2) on Oct. 18 at 7:30pm.
