PCAL Week 10

[RLS13]

Week 10 (the work got in the way preview, so it is brief)

Last week 8-4 Overall 94-34



Gabilan

By my math Salinas are Soquel are in. Monterey will clinch if it beats Alvarez, The front runner for #4 is Palma. But no guarantee as it still has to play Salinas and Alvarez. Aptos still has a chance as does both Hollister and Alavrez. But there would have to be some upsets. Don’t know if #5 gets in on points this year.



Fri 10/27 Aptos (CA) at Hollister (CA), 7:30pm – This is a must win game if either one of these teams once a chance to go to playoffs. Both have played well at time, but have been inconsistent. Aptos may be to demoralized after last week’s heartbreak loss to Monterey. Hollister 28-21



Fri 10/27 Monterey (CA) vs Alvarez (Salinas, CA) at Monterey Peninsula College (Monterey, CA), 7:30pm -Monterey is way more talented and should win this game, let hope they don’t have a letdown. Monterey 28-7



Fri 10/27 Salinas (CA) vs Palma (Salinas, CA) at Salinas Sports Complex (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm. Palma lost a hard fought battle to Soquel, now they have to bounce back vs next door neighbor Salinas. Salinas is down a notch form last year, especially on offense, but they are still better. Salinas 27-20



Mission North

Well Scott’s Valley left no doubt they were number 1 by taking poor Seaside to the woodshed. I picked them to win, not to dominate like they did. To win outright, still need to ge by a tough North Monterey County squad this week. Seaside should be be able to hold on to second and earn a DV playoff berth.



Fri 10/27 Watsonville (CA) at Monte Vista Christian (Watsonville, CA), 7:30pm -Watsonville had a great win over St. Francis last week, can they keep it going and beat the other Watsonville private School? Probably not. MVC 28-14



Fri 10/27 Scotts Valley (CA) at North Monterey County (Castroville, CA), 7:30pm

Scotts Valley cannot afford a letdown. North Monterey County is very physical and has the ability to pull the upset. Scott’s valley 24-7



Fri 10/27 St. Francis (Watsonville, CA) at Seaside (CA), 7:30pm -Seaside was embarrassed last week. Look for them to take their frustrations out on th out-manned Sharks. Seaside 35-6



Mission South

I don’t fully understand playoff points, but my thought is if the is division want s 3 teams in, then Alisal should lose Thursday night to North Salinas. I believe they can garner an outside bid easier then the Vikings. ( I am just joking) Carmel is still top dog but the battle for second will be decided Thursday.



Thu 10/26 North Salinas (Salinas, CA) vs Alisal (Salinas, CA) at Salinas Sports Complex (Salinas, CA), 7:30pm- This should be a great battle. Some advice to both teams Alisal “do not kick the ball deep on kick off’s”. North Salinas “Rotate D lineman. So they dot get tired” I think The athleticism of north Salinas will triumph over the physicality of Alisal. North Salinas 24-23

Fri 10/27 Pacific Grove (CA) at King City (CA), 7:30pm- Both he teams took a beating last week. PG has been playing better most of the year and will probably win, but I ain’t picking them. King City 14-13



Sat 10/28 Soledad (CA) at Carmel (CA), 3:00pm -Carmel will score a lot of point and then let Soledad score a little in the 2nd half. Carmel 48-12





Santa Lucia

Greenfield took care of business vs RLS and put themselves in the driver seat for the #1 seed. If Gonzales wants a chance, they need to 1st beat RLS and then Beat Greenfield the following week.

Sat 10/28 Greenfield (CA) at Pajaro Valley (Watsonville, CA), 11:30am -Greenfield should win as long as they are not looking ahead. Greenfield 24-3



Sat 10/28 Harbor (Santa Cruz, CA) at San Lorenzo Valley (Felton, CA), 2:30pm – This should be a pretty entertaining game. Takin the home team. SLV 27-17



Sat 10/28 Gonzales (CA) at Stevenson (Pebble Beach, CA), 2:00pm-You know who I am taking. The reasons do not matter just know they will bounce back from last week defeat. RLS 35-34

 

[Cal 14]

Well, it wasn't 223 to 24, but Alisal did pick up a nice win tonight over the Vikings. I'm not surprised. The Trojans are a tough bunch this year.

As far as playoff implications, it seems (according to @PAL Booster ), Alisal could move up to the 6 seed in D-III against Scotts Valley. This division could be pretty tough for the Trojans with Palma, Menlo-Atherton, and Carmel, but I'm guessing they wouldn't mind a shot at revenge against the Padres.

I've said it here before, but sometimes you win by losing. I think North High still gets an at-large playoff bid, but by losing this game, it appears they could drop down to a 1 or 2 seed in D-IV. This would give them a much greater chance at winning the bracket.

Gab Division:

Aptos really has been a mystery this year. Their offense really isn't all that bad, but their defense has really struggled a lot this year. Hollister hasn't been particularly more steady, though (I still scratch my head at that Alvarez game). Neither team throws the ball particularly well, but I still see this game being another shootout with the Mariners holding on this time, 48-45.

It's a shame that Alvarez keeps on being thrown to the wolves in this division as it seems they probably wouldn't even take 2nd place in the Mission South this year. Monterey, despite their early bluster, has at least treaded water in the Gab and shouldn't have much difficulty in this game, 31-14.

Salinas is starting to round out on offense, but we may not truly see whether it's just the weaker competition until the playoffs. I still think people are giving Palma credit for their history, rather than facing the reality of what this season has been. All the signs point towards a 10-17 point win for Salinas, so I'll go with 24-10.

 

[RLS13]

I rushed through this weeks predications as I was busy at work and wanted to get it out before the game last night. Great win by Alisal last night, even though I did pick North Salinas.

I agree Cal 14, I am probably taking Alisal in a rematch with Carmel. I am hoping North Salinas still qualifies, Alisal had the better resume with 2 wins over "A" league teams ( 1 was the Palma forfeit), but now they will go in as the 2nd place finisher even if they lose to Rancho San Juan next week (Alisal, will be a big favorite). North Salinas has 2 "B" league wins and a loss to Aptos, that is looking worse as the season progresses.

You could be right on the Aptos game, I keep picking them and they keep losing so now that I picked against them? It would be a shame if they did not make the playoffs in Blankenship's last year.

Alvarez is 4th in the Mission South and 2nd or 3rd in the Mission North. I suspect that they will try to swap them and Carmel(or Scott's Valley) next year.

I agree about the Salinas offense, I am giving Palma some credit due to the it being a rivalry game.

 

[thehookup55]

I really want to call Palma for the upset, but it will take their best offensive game to get it done. I expect Salinas to be aggressive on defense and shut down the run. Palma will need to hit on the big plays which I think they can against this Salinas team. Palma is more athletic in the skill positions. Salinas will likely stack the box and have a nice blitz package which wont give Nunes much time.

If Palmas defense plays like it did against Soquel, the game will be close. Palma has struggled with stopping the big plays on defense. All of their losses have come down to that. This Salinas team likes to wear you down through long methodical drives at a really fast pace. They don't need the big plays to beat you.

Salinas should win and I expect them to. I'll go SHS 27- Palma 18.

Gab Division:

Salinas is starting to round out on offense, but we may not truly see whether it's just the weaker competition until the playoffs. I still think people are giving Palma credit for their history, rather than facing the reality of what this season has been. All the signs point towards a 10-17 point win for Salinas, so I'll go with 24-10.

I don't think history has anything to do with what people think/thought of this Palma team. If we went off history, then Palma has been on a decline for the last decade. There was some hype and hope coming into the year. Returning QB who is a tremendous athlete, ND committed WR, Ive League DL/OL, a few very good players, etc. The team has shown they are a good Monterey County team. I'm not sure many thought they were more than that. I think the coaches knew that and they wanted to start to build back some winning tradition which is probably why they built a schedule to avoid the top divisions in playoffs. They don't belong in the category of competing with the top schools accross the section with thousands of kids anymore and they haven't for a while. That's what this program is at right now and will be for the foreseeable future.

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

Was going to head down to Salinas to watch the game, but this Palma team is frustrating to watch. Offense play calling has been terrible this season and just very inconsistent. I think Palma defense matches up better against Salinas than they did Aptos which for some reason Palma can't figure out how to stop them until late in the game. You would figure Palma defense would figure them out some after playing them every year now. Aptos has been down the last few years and looks like it will continue for a while. Salinas probably scores 21-28 and Palma offense will have to play its best game against Salinas defense which is pretty good. Palma's issue on offense is in my opinion due to losing o-coordinator from last year team that could score and also losing him as mentor to Palma's QB. In any even, I think it will be better than last seasons drubbing. It's rivalry week and high school football so anything can happen. I think Calpreps projection is probably pretty good on this one....10+ points

In the lower divisions, Salinas JVs will win by at least 4 TDs (Salinas should be better next season with two very strong 2025 and 2026 classes) and Palma JV doesn't have much of an offense and talented sophs are up on varsity. Hopefully Salinas will keep its strength of schedule next season because they will be big favorite in the Gab. I'll take Palma frosh by 2TDs (although they miss Dukes who went up to varsity) over Cowboys (which is average and not as talented than many of the last few years) to end the season undefeated and many will be on varsity next season with a few starting. Got to give some credit to the Salinas frosh schedule which was very strong (Valley Christian, Clovis and Mitty) but they are still 1-7. They are a better team than their record shows but down compared to the sophs and junior classes this year.

 

[Cal 14]

I really want to call Palma for the upset, but it will take their best offensive game to get it done. I expect Salinas to be aggressive on defense and shut down the run. Palma will need to hit on the big plays which I think they can against this Salinas team. Palma is more athletic in the skill positions. Salinas will likely stack the box and have a nice blitz package which wont give Nunes much time.

For all of Palma's "athleticism", they're averaging fewer points than Hollister per game for the season. Salinas is #2 in scoring, behind Aptos.

If Palmas defense plays like it did against Soquel, the game will be close.

Soquel is not an offensive juggernaut. The only team they score more than in the Gab is Alvarez.

I don't think history has anything to do with what people think/thought of this Palma team.

It's not just here. Prep2Prep sports has Palma #13 in the CCS... above Monterey.

 

[Cal 14]

Palma's issue on offense is in my opinion due to losing o-coordinator from last year team that could score and also losing him as mentor to Palma's QB.

For how long was he on the staff?

 

[thehookup55]

For all of Palma's "athleticism", they're averaging fewer points than Hollister per game for the season. Salinas is #2 in scoring, behind Aptos.



Soquel is not an offensive juggernaut. The only team they score more than in the Gab is Alvarez.



It's not just here. Prep2Prep sports has Palma #13 in the CCS... above Monterey.

Just because you have athletes in the skill positions doesn't mean you will score points. #2 in scoring for the season? or against the Gab? Palma has outscored Salinas on the year. That is against far inferior opponets of course. Against Gab Aptos #1 , Salinas #2, Palma #3. Maybe my numbers are wrong?

Soquel is not an offensive juggernaut, but Palma played great defense that game. Half of Soquel offensive production came on 2 big plays. Otherwise they would have been held to around 100 yards for the whole game.

Prep2prep has probably never seen Palma play so yes those rankings (and probably most of the media) probably are based on the name. To be fair they also have Salinas at #5, Aptos at #14 and Monterey at #23. None of those seem accurate either.

 

[thehookup55]

For how long was he on the staff?

He probably came around 2017. I think he was at Salinas for a couple of seasons before that.

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

My mistake, person calling plays been on staff a while without naming with HC. Ultimately it is HC. They underperformed this season so far and they returned most of their players from last season including line and skill players (exception RB) and physically they are up their with some of their stronger teams. They have missed Besaw since 2019 and Salinas could have used him for their spread this season and he turned Monterey around.

 

[Cal 14]

Just because you have athletes in the skill positions doesn't mean you will score points.

Then why bring it up?

#2 in scoring for the season? or against the Gab?

Gab, and I retract my statement about Palma's scoring vs Hollister. Calpreps is not calculating the points from the forfeits.

Against Gab Aptos #1 , Salinas #2, Palma #3. Maybe my numbers are wrong?

These numbers are correct.

Soquel is not an offensive juggernaut, but Palma played great defense that game. Half of Soquel offensive production came on 2 big plays. Otherwise they would have been held to around 100 yards for the whole game.

If Soquel's production only came from a couple big plays and they still won, what does that say about Palma's offense? The Knights don't even average 20 ppg (either in the Gab or overall).

Prep2prep has probably never seen Palma play so yes those rankings (and probably most of the media) probably are based on the name. To be fair they also have Salinas at #5, Aptos at #14 and Monterey at #23. None of those seem accurate either.

Agreed, there's no way Salinas is #5 and Monterey should be above both Palma and Aptos... but again, this is my point.

 

[thehookup55]

Then why bring it up?


If Soquel's production only came from a couple big plays and they still won, what does that say about Palma's offense? The Knights don't even average 20 ppg (either in the Gab or overall).

It was brought up because I said Palma would need to hit on the big plays on offense and that they have the advantage in the match up in athletes at the skill positions to do so. Will they do it? Probably not.

Palma's offense is bland and not oppurtunistic. We know this and have repeated it all year.

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

Frosh game: Palma 14 Salinas 0 Final. Chieftains go 9-0 for season (league champs). Only 38 pts scored all year on Chieftains defense (4.2/game ave with 4 shutouts) and offense 249 total pts (27.3 pts ave/game). Salinas frosh has only one win over Aptos and now (1-8). They play Hollister next week. Palma was only able to schedule 9 games this season. Salinas frosh better than their record shows with some really tough matchups in the season, but in general they are down.

JV game should be dominated by Salinas and varsity closer.