Pali High Football Ready for Hamilton

Fresh off of its first victory of the season the football team is poised for a breakthrough performance and would like nothing better than to deliver in front of its own fans in Friday night's homecoming game against Hamilton.

Perhaps no player is more optimistic than senior quarterback Nathan Dodson, who started his first game in four weeks last Friday afternoon at University and led the Dolphins to a 42-35 victory in their opener. Dodson injured his shoulder on the first series of Palisades' Week 2 game against Santa Monica and played only a few series over the next three games, Coach Perry Jones wanting to make sure Dodson was healthy for league play.

"It was a lot of fun and it felt really great to be back out there," Dodson said. "My shoulder isn't 100 percent but it's as good as it's gonna get this season. I haven't tried to really air it out, but it's good enough to make all the throws necessary in our offense."

After starting the season 0-5, beating the Wildcats on their home field was just what Palisades needed to carry some swagger into Friday's league showdown at 7 p.m. at .

"We did what we wanted to do on offense. We kept running the dive and they didn't really adjust to it," Dodson said. "I thought we dominated from the line of scrimmage, then we just got sloppy and went on cruise control. We didn't stay in attack mode. In fact, we haven't put a complete game together all season. One game the offense struggles, the next game the defense struggles but this is as healthy as we've been since El Camino Real [in Week 1] and it's homecoming so we really want to make a statement."   

Dodson pointed out that he has not been sacked all season—a testament to the steady play of the offensive line—and he praised the play of junior backup Kevin Acosta, who filled in at quarterback until Dodson's return.

"Kevin did great and gained a lot confidence while I was out," Dodson said. "It was tough having to watch and not being able to help the team, but last Friday was a good sign we scored as many points as we had the whole season. We scored six points in the three previous games and that's not going to win you anything. The line has been great all year. Mylz [Blake] doesn't run for all those yards last week without the guys in front of him."

Palisades must finish no worse than second place in league in order to secure a playoff berth and it will be hard to do so if the Dolphins lose to Hamilton, which is coming off a 27-20 victory over Westchester in its league opener. Jones said the Yankees are better now than they were last fall when Palisades beat them 63-36 on their homecoming.

"Last year's score is deceiving because it was still anyone's game going into the fourth quarter," Jones stated. "From what I've seen on film they can run the ball, they play good defense, they're very athletic and they throw some bubbles and slants that we have to be ready for."

Dodson agreed that the Yankees are no pushovers, but he believes the team is prepared after a sharp week of practice and physical play by the defense.

"They [Hamilton] look a lot like ECR, they have a strong running game and athletes in the secondary," Dodson said. "Cory [Richardson] and the defense were putting a beat down on our running backs in practice, giving a little extra. Offensively, we're just going to do what we do until they stop it."

After opening the season with back-to-back losses to Washington and Inglewood, the Yankees have won four straight and two of their wins have been shutouts. In fact, Hamilton has allowed just 30 points in the last four games and has given up a league-low 69 points this season. By comparison, Palisades has surrendered a league-high 196 points while scoring a league-low 84. Much of the discrepancy can be attributed to the Dolphins' superior strength of schedule as the combined record of their five nonleague opponents was 18-5.

Now that his starting quarterback and running backs Justin Sinclair and Ben Ingram are back in the lineup, Jones is hopeful the Dolphins put it all together.

"I'm still waiting for our team to show it can do," he said. "We can't put the ball on the ground and until we stop doing that we'll be hit or miss. It sounds cliche' but we have to take it one game at a time and focus on what's in front of us."

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