By Tony Solorzano
Whittier – Seven straight touchdowns put La Serna into the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section’s Southeast Division playoffs with a 49-0 shut out of the division’s wild card team, Diamond Ranch, Friday night at California High’s Whittier District Field.
Three first downs, all on one possession in the third quarter, were all the Panthers (7-4) could muster the entire game, against a focused Lancer (10-1) defense that took the predictions of a Diamond Ranch upset over last year’s Southeast Runner-up as a challenge.
We had a great game plan set up, it’s tough to stop a team like this but when the defense get rolling we were out there for like 20 plays in the first half,” said Lancers free safety Tyler Michael. “Our run defense has been great, they do a great job, it’s hard to get past a great defense like that.”
The Lancers would open the scoring on their second possession of the game, as Gio Long would cap a 12-play, 78-yard drive with a four-yard score with 2:40 left in the first. After forcing the Panthers to punt again, the Lancers, after ending the first quarter with a one-yard run by Ruben Rios, opened the second with a pass from Frankie Palmer to MacKenzie Duarte at midfield, which Duarte turned into a 79-yard score 12 seconds into the quarter.
Palmer wasn’t done in the quarter as he accounted for all four scored in the frame. After forcing the Panthers to go three-and-out, the Lancers took over possession on their own 32-yard line. This time, the Lancers needed only six plays to drive the 69 yards for the touchdown, this time Palmer hit John McFarland from nine yards out. On their next drive, Panthers quarterback Xavier Beltran was intercepted by Michael, who put the Lancers inside the Panthers’ territory.
On the first play of that drive, Palmer handed off to halfback Nick McCarty, who ran right, stopped and launched a missile right at D’Andre Sanchez for a 35-yard completion,m putting the Lancers at the Panthers’ 6 with a first-and-goal. After two attempts by Long moved the ball to the three, Palmer called his own number and found a hole for a three-yard score.
The Panthers got the ball back, and once more, ended up with a three-and-out, giving the ball back to the Lancers on their own 34-yard line. Palmer made a rare throwing error, getting flagged for an intentional grounding call, pushing the Lancers back to their 27-yard line, but McCarty erased the negative yards with a burst into the secondary on a 33-yard run, putting the Lancers across mid-field to the Panthers’ 40-yard line.
Palmer hit two of his next three passes to put the ball on the Panthers’ seven-yard line, but a fumbled snap pushed them back to the 20. However, Palmer connected a second time with McFarland in the end zone for the 20-yard score with 24. 2 second left in the half, taking a 35-0 lead into the half.
In the third, the Panthers finally got going as they ended the first down drought with three in their opening drive of the second half. Two of Beltran’s four completions in the drive gave the Panthers first downs, while Beltran added a third on a three-yard keeper. However it was the six dropped passes in the drive and a 10-yard loss on a fumble that stalled the Panthers at the Lancer 46-yard line. Beltran missed on his last two pass attempts and the Lancers got the ball on downs.
On their first drive of the second half, Palmer struck gold again, this time hitting three of his four attempts, including a 33-yard strike to Matthew Rosales that moved the Lancers from midfield to the Panthers’ red zone. Palmer would do it again, this time a 17-yard hit to Austin Johnson that put the Lancers on the Panthers’ three-yard line. Palmer then hit Travis Miller on a short three-yard lob for his fourth passing score of the game. Luke Gonzalez would end the scoring for the Lancers in the third as he broke out for a 55 yard scoring run with 1:17 left in the quarter.
With the score 49-0 after three periods, the game went to a running clock and Palmer was pulled in favor of backup quarterback Enrique Pacheco. Pacheco would only run two drives for the Lancers in the fourth quarter, showing his inexperience by getting sacked twice for a loss of 14 yards and having both drives end with punts by Tavis Guerra.
Gonzalez led the ground game for the Lancers, leading with 68 yards on three carries and a touchdown. Palmer had six carries for 35 yards and a score and Rios had eight touches for 24 yards. Six players combined for 152 yards rushing on 26 carries. Palmer missed only three of his 16 attempts for 280 yards and his four scores, while McFarland caught four of those passes for 64 yards and two scores, although Duarte led all receivers with his lone catch for 79 yards.
The Lancers will go on the road to face the co-champions of the San Gabriel Valley League, Compton Dominguez at Dons Stadium on Friday. The Dons advanced with a come-from-behind 14-7 win over the Bellflower Buccaneers at Bellflower’s Ron Yary Stadium.
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