Palos Verdes began its 2012 football season with three straight losses, but the Sea Kings’ demanding non-league schedule proved beneficial Saturday when the boys from the hill defeated West Torrance for the school’s first CIF football title in 47 years.
Coach Guy Gardner’s squad rattled off 11 consecutive victories to end the season, culminating with a 35-14 win over its Bay League rival in the CIF Southern Section Northern Division Championship game.
“I was very happy for our kids, our staff, our student body, administration, our community and everyone that ever coached or played football at Palos Verdes High School,” Gardner said. “It’s been a long time and many people have put in a lot of sweat and blood to get a CIF Championship back to PV. I’m just happy for everyone, especially our players and staff who worked so hard. Our team truly played as a TEAM all year, and overcame a lot of injuries and challenges. But they just took it one practice, one play at a time, and I am very proud of them.”
Although Palos Verdes was considered the host team, the game was played at Veteran’s Stadium in Long Beach because Palos Verdes does not have lights at its field.
Running back Matt Lopes carried the load for Palos Verdes, rushing for 188 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries when West’s stingy defense shut down the Sea King’s passing game.
Palos Verdes led the physical contest 19-7 at the half and its running game help keep West’s potent offense off the field limiting the Warrior’s dual-threat quarterback Joey Notch to 196 yards and one touchdown and running back Barry Thomas to 100 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries – well below his average.
Quarterback Bryan Scott padded the Sea King’s lead scoring on a 1-yard quarterback sneak for the only scoring in the third period.
After a Michael Tulchin 42-yard field goal, fullback Mason Manu scored on a 33-yard run sealing the victory for Palos Verdes.
West, which had eliminated Mira Costa from the playoffs after losing to the Mustangs during league play, was hoping to do the same to Palos Verdes. The Sea Kings routed the Warriors 47-14 on Oct. 19.
West finished fourth in the Bay League and earned an at-large berth based on its overall season record. Gardner didn’t want his team to dwell on the first meeting between the two teams.
“It’s always tough playing a league opponent the first time, let alone the second time,” Gardner explained. “So, in some aspects it’s tougher. But we really tried to focus on just one game, not giving the past too much thought, knowing this was going to be tough no matter what. It does say something about how strong our league is though.”
Palos Verdes (11-3) began the season with a 41-0 home loss to Narbonne followed by road losses to Central Fresno (25-22) and El Toro (45-24) but the high quality of non-league opponents help prepare the Sea Kings for their run to the title.
Narbonne (14-0) won the L.A. City championship and will face Centennial of Corona (13-1) in the CIF State Regional Open Division championship Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Cerritos College.
Central Fresno (11-3) and El Toro (9-2) each had successful seasons as did Moorpark (8-3), who Palos Verdes edged 35-34 for its first win of the season.
“After starting 0-3, we just kept doing the same routine as when we were 0-1 and later at 10-3,” Gardner said. “Lots of film review and focusing on us… Seeing what we were doing wrong and trying to correct what we can control. Our goal was just to get better as a football team each week and really focus on what we do. Our first three opponents weren’t too shabby, either.”
Palos Verdes is ranked No. 22 in the state and scored 526 points while allowing only 274 this season.
While the CIF championship was the first for Palos Verdes since 1965, it was the third for Gardner who won twice while serving as an assistant coach at Mira Costa from 1989-98.
Along with Narbonne, the South Bay will be represented in the CIF State Regional Championships by Serra. The Cavaliers (12-2) will take on Edison (13-1) in the Division 2 title game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Orange Coast College.
Serra captured its third CIF title in four seasons after defeating visiting Chaminade 30-28 in a thrilling Western Division championship game.
In the Northwest Division championship game, host North Torrance (11-3) could not get its high-powered offense going and fell to No. 2 Nordhoff 31-14 on Saturday. The Saxons had knocked off top-seeded Bishop Diego the previous week.
