Vikings Still Rule the Beach

PaliHi Football Loses Sixth Straight to Santa Monica, 35-0, in Rivalry Game

Watching Palisades High players walk off the field at Santa Monica College last Friday night, one would not have guessed they had just lost the “Battle by the Beach,” 35-0. Yes, Palisades suffered another blowout–its sixth in a row at the hands of its crosstown rival. Yet the feeling on the sidelines afterward was far different than the one that existed following the season-opening loss at Hollywood. That’s because, over the course of 48 minutes, the Dolphins had made strides towards becoming the team Head Coach Kelly Loftus and Offensive Coordinator Kris Hawkes envisioned it could. “It’s a learning curve and we showed some improvement tonight,” Hawkes said. “However, we have a long way to go. We still don’t have 11 minds out there working together. The bottom line is we’re not going to win if we put up zero points.” No, the Dolphins didn’t score, but they had several sustained drives against perhaps the toughest opponent on the schedule. If not for a costly penalty and a fumble deep in Vikings territory late in the second quarter, the score might have been closer than 21-0 at halftime. Making his first start after sitting out Palisades’ first game with an ankle strain, senior quarterback Preon Morgan offered glimpses of what fans should expect to see at Stadium by the Sea this season. He made several electrifying runs and finished with 86 yards in 11 carries and nine pass completions for 51 yards. “In the beginning, I felt a little slow,” said Morgan, who had only a couple of days to practice before his first start under center. “I had the ankle taped up pretty good so that wasn’t a problem.” Morgan and his receivers were not in sync at times, a detail the quarterback hopes to fix in the Dolphins’ home opener tomorrow against Lynwood. “My play recognition needs to get better and we need to adjust some of our routs and we’ll be fine,” said Morgan, who was told he would start earlier that day. “This is only my first week of practice so it’s only going to get better.” Loftus said the thing his team needs to improve the most is the running game. Malcolm Creer gained 43 yards in 12 carries and Kemonta Reed added 15 yards in five carries against the Vikings. Loftus said his backs must do a better job finding the holes: “We need to get more explosion coming through the line.” Ben Ingram had four receptions for 13 yards, Kevin Mann caught three passes for 26 yards, Creer caught one pass for 11 yards and Paul Logan had one catch for five yards. Brandon Taylor rushed for 113 yards in 13 carries and scored all three of the Vikings’ touchdowns in the first half. Palisades’ defense held Santa Monica at bay for most of the last three quarters, except for a 40-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Safron in the third quarter and Shane Jones’ three-yard run with 2:13 left in the game’a touchdown set up by a botched snap that Palisades punter Alex Anastasi was forced to fall on at the Dolphins’ 5-yard line. Climaco led the way with seven tackles, Samuel Robertson, Tommy Brown and Aaron Ussery each had six, Neko Holmes and Kolmus Iheuhacho both had five and Jeremy Smith, Hakeem Jawanza, Devyn Vatete-Reyes, Marquice Shokir, Roman Thomas and William Goldberg made four tackles apiece. One positive was that the Dolphins, who were flagged 10 times for 120 yards against Hollywood, committed only three penalties for 30 yards against Santa Monica. “The key is to improve each game and be firing on all cylinders by the time league rolls around,” Hawkes told his troops. “We have to have a great week of practice.” Santa Monica got the better of its beach rival for the sixth straight time–matching the streak it had from 1984-89–and has won the last four meetings by 35, 35, 36 and 35 points. Palisades’ last win over the Vikings was a 16-12 victory in 2003 under coach Jason Blatt. The Dolphins’ largest margin of victory was 22 points–a 61-37 blowout under coach Ron Price in 1999. “We can build on what we did tonight,” Loftus said. “We played well in spurts, now we just have to be able to finish drives and get points in the red zone.” With its victory last Friday, Santa Monica improved to 16-6-2 against Palisades. Below is a year-by-year look at the rivalry: 2009 Santa Monica 35, Palisades 0 2008 Santa Monica 42, Palisades 6 2007 Santa Monica 35, Palisades 0 2006 Santa Monica 42, Palisades 7 2005 Santa Monica 24, Palisades 14 2004 Santa Monica 20, Palisades 7 2003 Palisades 16, Santa Monica 2 2002 Santa Monica 20, Palisades 9 1999 Palisades 61, Santa Monica 37 1998 Palisades 23, Santa Monica 21 1997 Palisades 15, Santa Monica 13 1996 Santa Monica 35, Palisades 28 1990 Palisades 0, Santa Monica 0 1989 Santa Monica 24, Palisades 8 1988 Santa Monica 21, Palisades 0 1987 Santa Monica 48, Palisades 42 1986 Santa Monica 32, Palisades 0 1985 Santa Monica 34, Palisades 6 1984 Santa Monica 28, Palisades 7 1983 Palisades 26, Santa Monica 13 1982 Santa Monica 21, Palisades 0 1981 Palisades 14, Santa Monica 14 1980 Palisades 21, Santa Monica 15 1979 Santa Monica 24, Palisades 15