The Palma Chieftains will head out on the road to take on the Aptos Mariners at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Palma has five straight wins, Aptos has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Palma is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They simply couldn't be stopped on Saturday as they easily beat Carmel 57-21. The final result isn't all that surprising considering the Chieftains' considerable advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 106th, while the Padres are ranked 366th).
Eli Dukes produced another solid effort rushing for 202 yards and three scores on only 12 carries. His longest rush was for an incredible 95 yards. Another rusher making a difference was David Garcia, who rushed for 82 yards and a pair of TDs on only ten carries.
They were just one part of a punishing run game: Palma was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 403 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Palma didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off four passes before the game was over. Rocco Orlowski led the group effort, picking up two of those interceptions all by himself.
Meanwhile, Aptos came up short against Alisal on Friday, falling 50-27.
Palma's victory bumped their record up to 5-0. As for Aptos, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-5.
Palma couldn't quite finish off Aptos in their previous meeting back in October of 2024 and fell 34-31. Can the Chieftains avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
