Dolphins Display Depth in Opening Victory

Running back Desmond Box talks about the Dolphins’ performance in Friday’s 40-12 win.

The Palisades High varsity football team got the season off to a rousing start Friday afternoon, receiving contributions at every position in a 40-12 nonleague victory over Marshall in Los Feliz.

“It feels good to win, especially Game One — this is exactly what we wanted,” Coach Tim Hyde said. “Everything I told the kids came true. It was hard, it was a dog fight, it was hot out there, we made some mental errors but we had a lot of new guys play and we’re going to be okay.”

Junior quarterback P.J. Hurst was efficient in his varsity start, completing five of nine passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns — the first a 55-yarder to Dhaamir Lomax late in the first quarter and the second a 26-yarder to Quincy Cowherd late in the third quarter.

“P.J. made a couple of rookie mistakes, he was a little anxious at times, but he had no turnovers, he managed the game and I was happy,” Hyde said.

One standout was running back Desmond Box, who rushed 141 yards in just eight carries and delivered the knockout punch with a 65-yard touchdown run that gave the Dolphins a 33-6 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t have any scrimmages leading up to this so we started off a little slow but it didn’t make a big difference,” Box said. “We expected to score way more than we did. We had a lot of ups and downs this game, but it’s just first game things that we can correct for next week.”

— Steve Galluzzo