By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
The matchups are set for the first state championship football games in nearly 80 years.
While some pundits seemed to have already decided which three teams will leave the Home Depot Center in Carson on Saturday with a state championship banner in hand, one team will be more than happy to be on the field.
They even think they might just surprise those so-called pundits Saturday afternoon.
Central Coast Section Open Division Champion Palo Alto, the only non-North Coast Section representative of the three Northern California teams, wasn't expected to go too deep into the playoffs to begin with, much less claim a section title.
And as for their earning a historic berth in the first state title game to be played in eight decades?
"I can't even believe this," Vikings' coach Earl Hansen told the San Jose Mercury News "This is unbelievable. This is nothing you could ever plan on. Did I think we were capable? Yes. But I don't think this is something you could ever really know unless you're De La Salle."
Led by 6-2 senior quarterback Nick Goodspeed (1,810 yards, 15 TDs, 7 INTs), senior running back Will Frazier (1,057 yards, 15 TDs), and junior fullback Sione Mataele (693 yards, 15 TDs), the Vikings (12-1) escaped with three close playoff wins in their drive for the section crown.
After knocking off Aragon 23-21, Palo Alto survived a four-overtime marathon 41-38 win against Palma before avenging its only loss of the season in the section championship game by defeating Oak Grove 23-21.
Oh, and the reward awaiting Palo Alto for having reached to top of the mountain after such a perilous climb to the summit?
A flight to Los Angeles on Friday and a 3:30 p.m. appointment on Saturday to play the nation's No. 8 ranked team, the Orange Lutheran Lancers.
At 13-1, the Lancers come into the game as the favorites to win the Division II championship on Saturday.
They will play at Home Depot Center for the third-straight week, and will get to sleep in their own beds on Friday night while the Vikings will hole up in a nearby hotel nearly 400 miles from home.
That's just the intangibles.
Once the Vikings take the field on the campus of California State University-Dominguez Hills, they will quickly find out why the Lancers are ranked so high among the nation's many prep teams.
USC-bound quarterback Aaron Corp looms over opposing defensive lines at 6-4 and has racked up 2,537 passing yards and 17 touchdowns to go against just seven interceptions.
Corp's favorite target will be Boise State-bound Austin Pettis. The 6-3 receiver finished with 980 yards and caught 10 of Corp's scoring passes.
If the Vikings are planning on shutting down the Lancers' aerial attack, they will quickly discover than Corp can inflict nearly as much damage with his legs as he can with his arm. Corp finished the season as Lutheran's leading rusher with 1,044 yards and 10 touchdowns.
But Palo Alto's cause is not hopeless. The Lancers can be beaten as shown by a double-overtime 28-21 loss Oct. 12 to an Anaheim Servite squad that finished 8-4 on the season before losing to Edison in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Vikings also appear to be getting healthy again as 6-1 senior cornerback Trenton Hart, who has reportedly recovered from a collarbone injury that kept him out of the playoffs, returns to the lineup to help a defensive backfield that will be tested by Corp and Pettis.
Clearly, Palo Alto knows how to win the close games on the big stage and Saturday's stage is as big as it gets in prep football.
If the Vikings can keep the game close Saturday, they might shock those nay-saying pundits and make their permanent mark upon California prep football history by walking off the field Saturday evening as state champions.
