CASTROVILLE — Before Palma’s bus headed to Castroville, it made a stop at head football coach Jeff Carnazzo’s Salinas house to see their coach.
Carnazzo, who suffered a medical issue earlier in the week, but is expected to make a full recovery, walked on to the bus and gave the Chieftains a quick pep talk Friday, while sharing an update on his health.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been that scared,” Carnazzo said. “I had never had a headache like that. The doctors said I am one of the lucky ones. The doctors wouldn’t clear me to coach the game. But I got a chance to talk to the team.”
Whatever the county’s all-time winningest coach said, it sank in as the Chieftains dropped 28 points on North County in the first 18 minutes of the game in a 41-13 decision.
“I was able to listen to the game,” Carnazzo said. “I talked with Nick (assistant coach Nick Noroian) after the game. We made a lot of mistakes. It was a little rough around the edges. We’ll improve off of it.”
Noroian, who has been an assistant to Carnazzo for two decades, filled in as the Chieftains head coach, turning to a ground game that witnessed David Garcia and Eli Dukes combine for five touchdown runs.
“We got thumped early,” North County coach Juan Cuevas said. “I looked up in the second quarter and we’re down 28-0. You need to see a good punch once or twice. The morale isn’t low. We didn’t limp off the field like we did last year.”
Champions of the Mission Division North last season — their first league title outright in 25 years — the Condors fell 41-7 to Palma in last year’s preseason game.
“We’re not young,” said Cuevas, who took North County to the playoffs last fall for the first time in 15 years. “I felt like we competed. But we’re inexperienced. At times, it showed.”
For all the attention on Dukes, it was Garcia who stole the spotlight in the first quarter with a 35-yard touchdown run — the first of three touchdowns from the junior tailback.
Dukes, who rushed for over 2,000 yards last season, didn’t disappoint in limited touches, scoring a pair of touchdowns, including a 40-yard run to stake Palma to a 28-0 cushion.
“You have your ups and downs over the course of a season,” said Carnazzo, who took Palma to a state title in 2023 and a spot in the Central Coast Section Division II finals last fall. “The season is like a rollercoaster.”
The Condors cut into Palma’s 28-point lead in the second quarter when Junior Hernandez connected with Jake Silva on an 80-yard scoring strike. The pair hooked up again in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 21.
Palma, who has made a CCS record 40 straight postseason appearances and will host Hilmar next Friday at Rabobank, pushed its lead back to 28 points in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run from Dwayne Choates.
