HOLLISTER – No coach wants to make it about himself. Perhaps that’s why Jeff Carnazzo didn’t harp on the fact that he’s never had an undefeated regular season in 25 years as Palma’s head football coach.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t remind his players that the last time the Chieftains were 9-0 in 2001, perfection was disrupted by Hollister.
“I did talk about 2001 in practice,” Carnazzo said. “We rolled into Hollister 9-0 and got beat. My assistant coach Rick Dukes, was an assistant back then for Hollister.”
The Gabilan Division champion Chieftains put an end to any hopes Hollister had of making the playoffs, completing a 10-0 season Friday with a 35-14 road win.
“I told the kids after the game you’ve accomplished something that’s special,” Carnazzo said.
The last time the Chieftains went 10-0 in the regular season was in 1997 under the late Norm Costa. Carnazzo was serving as a junior varsity coach at the time.
For Carnazzo, who spent two days in ICU for a brain injury before the season opener 11 weeks ago, returning to the sidelines was his medication.
“The driving force for me in getting better quickly was getting back to the team,” Carnazzo said. “I wore the doctors down to coach in the second game. These kids were my motivation. I’m thankful for being here, sharing this moment with them.”
Palma, which will be seeded Sunday into the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs, is the only team from the Pacific Coast Athletic League to go undefeated this year.
“I used to be able to figure the point system out,” Carnazzo said. “Now it’s super complicated with the computer. I’m not even going to speculate where we might be.”
During the course of the year, Palma ended a seven-year Gabilan Division losing streak to Salinas with an emotionally draining 42-41 win in overtime, then ended Soquel’s bid to repeat as champions with a 28-21 decision last week.
Once upon a time, this was the rivalry as Palma and Hollister have been playing for 50-plus years. That intensity and fire has not subsided on either side.
“I don’t think the rivalry has softened at all,” Carnazzo said. “The team feels it. Hollister is always emotional. It’s knocked us from the unbeaten ranks more than once.”
In addition to the Balers beating Palma in 2001 when it was 9-0, they also stopped an eight-game winning streak in 2014, ultimately winning the league championship.
For a quarter, the upset alert went up when Hollister put together a drive that climaxed with a touchdown and a 7-0 lead over the Chieftains.
“I think I got caught up coaching in my own little world,” Carnazzo said. “Sometimes I think I make the players tight. I know they really wanted this game.”
The Chieftains were coming off the win over Soquel, which gave them no worse than a share of the Gabilan Division title. Sharing the title was not an option.
“There was a little letdown, I’m not going to deny it,” Carnazzo said. “You could feel it on our sidelines. We started slow. Hollister slowed the game down. We like to play with tempo. I knew at some point we’d catch fire.”
It never hurts when you have arguably one of the best tailbacks in the CCS in Eli Dukes, who accounted for four more touchdowns Friday, giving him 30 on the season.
Dukes, who came into the game needing 155 yards to get to 2,000 rushing yards, got 45 on one play when he got loose in the open field to tie the game at seven.
What transpired was a run of 21 straight points by Palma with quarterback Patrick Driscoll connecting with Chase Amaral on a 55-yard scoring strike, and Dukes on a 69-yard touchdown pass.
“We made some adjustments up front to what Hollister was doing,” Carnazzo said. “It took a while to figure it out. Eli was Eli. And our quarterback helped loosen up the defense. They (Hollister) were on top of us.”
Dukes, who is already the school’s all-time leading rusher as a junior, added touchdown runs of 25 and 16 in the second half to put the Chieftains up by 21 points.
Despite a two-game improvement in the Gabilan Division from last season, the Balers will be missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008, finishing the year 3-7 overall.
