PCAL Week 11
Last week- 7-5 (Brutal week) Overall 113-38
Gabilan- Well safe to say the Soquel is the best team in the PCAL. Great statement win over Salinas last week. According to the projections Palma still looks like it is going to make the playoffs, but really, they don’t deserve it this year. Props to Monterey coaching for getting QB2 ready for his first varsity start. Hollister is literally an enigma wrapped up in a question. 2 years in a row losing to Alvarez? This week should be fun as playoff seedings will be decided. This is interesting to me, if Alvarez upsets Palma, they will still not go to playoffs after beating both Palma and Hollister and finishing in a tie for 4th place in the league, ahead of both aforementioned schools. They lose the 4th place tiebreaker (auto bid) to Aptos based on head-to-head, and Palma and Hollister will both have more CCS point and make the playoff field. That just seems wrong.
Fri 11/08 Salinas (CA) at Hollister (CA), 7:30pm -Hollister beat up Aptos, and had the closest Gabilan game with Soquel. Then proceeds to lose its next 4 games in a row and will probably finish in 7th place. Yet somehow still make playoffs? Salinas 34-7
Fri 11/08 Seaside (CA) at Monterey (CA), 7:30pm- When QB1 went down, I though Monterey season was over. Great job by coaching staff rallying this team and implementing JV QB into the varsity. This will be a nice warm up for them prior to playoffs. Monterey 38-14
Fri 11/08 Palma (Salinas, CA) vs Alvarez (Salinas, CA) at Salinas Sports Complex (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm -Alvarez has been playing really good football the past couple weeks, 1 pt loss to Aptos and a big win over Hollister. If they beat Palma CCS needs to figure a way to get them into the field. Alvarez 24-23
Fri 11/08 Aptos (CA) at Soquel (CA), 7:00pm This could be a trap game for Soquel playing their old SCCAL rival after a big win and looking forward to playoffs. But I think this team is way to good for that. Soquel 35-7
Mission North – North Monterey County is going to the playoffs. That is really all I can say about this division. Can’t tell you who else is going, can’t tell who is going to finish first. Can’t tell you why Watsonville can lose to Seaside but beat Alisal and MVC. Can’t tell you why Alisal can beat Scott’s Valley this weekend and still not make the playoffs if MVC beats St Francis and Watsonville beats NMC. Chaos. I am going to go out on a very small limb and say that Alisal will get the 2nd playoff spot.
Fri 11/08 Scotts Valley (CA) at Alisal (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm- If Alisal wins they should get in, as long as NMC or St Francis wins as well. I wonder if all the MVC and St Francis players will be on the Scott’s Valley sideline. Alisal 24-17
Fri 11/08 Watsonville (CA) at North Monterey County (Castroville, CA), 7:30pm – NMC wins, they get to hang the championship banner. If Watsonville wins, then Alisal could be in trouble. NMC 28-7
Sat 11/09 St. Francis (Watsonville, CA) at Monte Vista Christian (Watsonville, CA), 7:30pm: This game takes place on Saturday if the 2 predictions come through on Friday this game means nothing but pride. St Francis needs Alisal to lose and a win to make the playoffs. MVC needs a win and a Alisal Loss or a NMC loss in order to create a 3 way tie to get in. MVC 28-14
Mission South (North Salinas Bye)-Nice and simple. Carmel has secured the division crown and North Salinas has a bye week to prepare for the playoffs. Everyone else will be building towards next year. Next year should be fun as Carmel will drop way back to the pack. NS, PG, Soledad, and KC all have young teams and will be improved. Not to mention that RLS will probably be bumped up and Greenfield had the best defense in the league.
Fri 11/08 Soledad (CA) at King City (CA), 7:30pm-Some South County bragging rights on the line here as both these programs look to finish their season out on a positive note. KC RB/LB maybe one of the top players in the PCAL as a sophomore. Soledad improved as the season went on was close to making CCS as at large. Soledad 24-17
Fri 11/08 Carmel (CA) vs Pacific Grove (CA) at Monterey Peninsula College (Monterey, CA), 7:30pm. I would say because it is a rivalry game that PG has a chance. But here is the thing Carmel really cares about this game, more so than winning league. They would rather go 1-9 and beat PG than 9-1 and lose the Shoe. Carmel 48-14
Fri 11/08 Greenfield (CA) at Rancho San Juan (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm- The long season comes to an end for Rancho San Juan. They will be regulated to the Santa Lucia after scoring 29 total points this season. Wont get any easier for them vs Greenfield, whose defense only gave up 24 points to Carmel offense last week. Greenfield 24-0
Santa Lucia (Santa Cruz bye)- RLS is going back to the playoffs!!! Two division titles in 3 years! A quick shoutout to my alma mater: RLS participated in 8 sports this fall and won 6 league/division championships!! And yes The Santa Lucia is “C”, but the other 5 were in the top divisions!! This team is destined to move up to the Mission divisions next year, where they should be competitive if they stay healthy. Santa Cruz got it second win of the season, nice building blocks for them. SLV and Gonzales may be candidates to move up as well, it depends if the PCAL decides to move Seaside down.
Sat 11/09 San Lorenzo Valley (Felton, CA) at Pajaro Valley (Watsonville, CA), 12:30pm- SLV will have to lick its wounds as its perfect season came to an end. If they are still motivated they should be able to beat an improving Pajaro program. SLV 21-7
Sat 11/09 Gonzales (CA) vs Harbor (Santa Cruz, CA) at Soledad (CA), 7:30pm ; Harbor has had a tough year (again). Feel like the program took a step back this year with only 1 win. I don’t see them beating Gonzales. Gonzales 35-14
Sat 11/09 Marina (CA) at Stevenson (Pebble Beach, CA), 2:30pm- Take care of business and don’t get hurt. That’s what RLS has to do this Saturday vs a overmatched, but still dangerous Marina team. Then find out who we meet in the playoffs! RLS 34-13
iolaniclassic.com
