The Gardena Excessive soccer workforce has been profitable with protection all season, and the third-seeded Panthers did it yet another time to flee with a 14-10 overcome Palisades within the Metropolis Part Open Division quarterfinals Thursday night time.
Senior linebacker Torey Pierce hit Palisades quarterback Roman La Scala simply as he launched the ball and his wobbly move fell incomplete into the top zone on fourth and 14 on the Gardena 25-yard line with 5 seconds left. That got here one play after Andrew Aldana dropped a possible interception on the 15, giving the sixth-seeded Dolphins (7-3) one final probability.
It was the Panthers’ first playoff win underneath third-year coach Monty Gilbreath, an All-Metropolis receiver at Taft after which San Diego State within the Eighties.
“Torey was within the backfield all sport lengthy so I’m not stunned he received to the quarterback,” Gilbreath mentioned. “This feels actually good. I ask lots of these children and it’s good to see them get the reward. We shut groups down. That’s what we do. I imagine we have now the very best protection within the Metropolis. We anticipated our protection to should cease them they usually did. This can be a new expertise for us enjoying within the prime division however we’re comfortable to be advancing.”
Neither workforce scored within the second half. An interception by Zakye Marcus, the Panthers’ main tackler, halted a Palisades drive into the pink zone late within the third quarter.
“This was nothing new,” Marcus mentioned. “We have been in the same scenario with San Pedro, solely that was on the purpose line. We knew Palisades was going to go up-tempo and do lots of fast outs and we did a fairly good job apart from the one blown protection.”
Palisades quarterback Roman La Scala passes throughout a CIF Metropolis Part Open Division quarterfinal playoff sport in opposition to Gardena on Thursday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Instances)
Brimming with confidence after profitable its first league title since 1974, Gardena (10-1) scored on its first possession when Isaiah Kim related with Johan Wallace on a 33-yard seam route, however Palisades answered on a 63-yard move from La Scala to Jaden Williams. Myles Mason scored on a five-yard run to place Gardena again in entrance 14-7 with 23 seconds left within the first quarter.
Palisades marched to the Gardena one-yard line halfway by means of the second quarter, however after an offside penalty and an incomplete move, the Dolphins settled for a 23-yard subject purpose by Kellan Ford. On the finish of the half, Ford tried a 33-yarder however it was blocked, holding the house workforce forward 14-10.
Kim accomplished 15 of 21 passes for 135 yards and Wallace had 9 receptions for 83 yards.
Gardena will journey to No. 2 Garfield (10-1) within the semifinals subsequent week.
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