Palo Verde preparation pays off

Final exams in high schools don't start until January, but one came a bit early this year for the Palo Verde football team.

The grade? A-plus.

The Panthers capped their undefeated season Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium with a 21-7 victory against Las Vegas High School, claiming Palo Verde' s first state football championship since the school opened in 1996.

A crowd of about 6,000 -- the paid attendance of 3,876 was a Sam Boyd record for the state title game -- watched Palo Verde's defense totally outwork Las Vegas' attack, holding the Wildcats to just 120 total yards of offense -- 16 in the second half. Wildcats running back Eric Jordan had 111 yards on 27 carries.

"That's a tribute to (defensive) coach (Charlie) Jarvis," Panthers coach Darwin Rost said after the game. "We knew Jordan was going to get his yards, but we thought the secondary had a little speed."

Jarvis said his plan was just to try to keep Jordan bunched up, which the Panthers were fairly successful at doing. Minus Jordan's three biggest runs, Vegas' junior running back phenom had just 57 rushing yards on 24 carries.

"You can't stop him, you just have to try to keep him from getting out of there," Jarvis said.

As for preparing for the game, Rost said he watched around 48 hours of film this week, and Jarvis thanked the coaches' wives for being patient as he explained that the staff was out past midnight several times this week watching game film, including one session to 4 a.m.

Palo Verde's Sam King, who plays fullback and defensive back, said the preparations for the Vegas offense began the day after last week's semifinal win against McQueen.

"We got our defensive packets, they were about 50 pages deep, with all the plays and how many times they run them," King said.

It was King's offense, though, that set the tone early, when he broke loose for a 58-yard touchdown run 86 seconds into the game. After forcing Vegas to go three-and-out, Palo Verde took the ball at its own 35-yard-line, then launched a four and a half minute drive that ended with Marc Evans' 1-yard touchdown run on fourth and goal to put the Panthers up 14-0.

Vegas seemed to develop a little momentum with Palo Verde punting on three consecutive possessions, and the Wildcats capitalized with a 12-yard touchdown pass from O'Ryan Bradley to Christian Vidal.

But Bradley broke his collarbone on the play, and backup Ryan Seabolt, who started the season but has seen limited action in the past two months, threw an interception to Palo Verde's Anthony White on his first pass attempt. It took seven plays for the Panthers to score from the Vegas 28, giving Palo Verde the final margin.

"Our defense gave us that big turnover, that gave us a short field," Rost said.

For the Wildcats, it was the second consecutive year injuries would seem to have played a major role in dousing their title run. Las Vegas made it to last year's state championship but lost to Reno, and was playing without Jordan and quarterback Chris Gifford.

But Vegas coach Chris Faircloth refused to blame his team's offensive sputter on injuries.

"People get injured. That's the way it goes," Faircloth said.

For Palo Verde though, it was a sweet breakthrough after being soundly defeated in the state semifinals for two consecutive years. Both Rost and Jarvis talked about how close the team, and in particular its core group of seniors, has grown through the past three seasons.

"The kids this year, it was like they had one heartbeat," Jarvis said. "I never saw one player be selfish as to who got the yards, as long as the team won."

Of Palo Verde's 258 rushing yards, Marc Evans had 74, Drew McDaniel 68 and King 102.

Quarterback Jarrell Harrison finished with just 24 rushing yards on 12 carries and completed two of three passes for 44 yards. A big part of the Panthers' state championship basketball team last spring, Harrison said this win was better.

"It feels a lot better because we've tried so hard for so long and it finally paid off," he said. "All the hard work in the summer, it's paid off. In the past two years we tried so hard, and came up short against McQueen and Vegas -- it feels real good."

archive