Palo Alto Punches Playoff Ticket With Late Drive

The Vikings secured an automatic playoff berth by driving 96 yards in eight plays.

It’s a shame so few fans were in attendance at Earl Hansen Viking Stadium on Thursday night, because Palo Alto’s go-ahead drive deserved to be enjoyed by thousands.

Facing a win-and-you’re-in situation, the Vikings traveled 96 yards on eight plays to take the lead against King’s Academy in a PAL De Anza finale, taking the lead on Jeremiah Madrigal’s 9-yard touchdown run with 2:18 remaining.

Reid Black and the Knights never got a proper chance to respond.

Roman Jacobs forced a fumble that Watson Koegler recovered on the ensuing kick return, and the Vikings scored again three plays later on a Joseph Kessler 40-yard touchdown run to take a two-score lead.

Black did lead King’s Academy (5-4, 3-2 PAL De Anza) back down the field afterwards, finding Kyle Welch on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds remaining, but Anthony Landa Mendoza recovered the ensuing onside kick to secure a 34-28 Vikings win.

“We didn’t want to leave (our playoff fate) up to the numbers,” said quarterback Declan Packer, who completed passes to both Jeremiah Fung and Kessler on the decisive drive.

The pass to Fung allowed Palo Alto (5-5, 3-2) to convert a third-and-6, and the screen to Kessler was immediately followed by Madrigal’s touchdown run.

“To me, he’s the best quarterback in our league,” head coach Dave DeGeronimo said of Packer, who completed 15 of 29 passes for 167 yards.

In all, the Vikings outscored TKA 20-7 in the fourth quarter, and the one Knights score came inside the final 15 seconds.

Kessler ran for a 74-yard touchdown on a sweep to the left on the second play of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 21, and the Vikings forced a pair of punts before embarking on the 96-yard drive.

The first of those punts was negated by a roughing the kicker penalty, giving the Knights a fresh set of downs after a Landa Mendoza strip sack turned into a 16-yard loss.

“The effort was tremendous, and sometimes when you’re giving everything you have, things can go wrong like roughing the kicker,” DeGeronimo said. “But they bounced back.”

King’s Academy picked up two more first downs after the penalty, but another Landa Mendoza sack led the Knights to punt again. The Vikings took over at their own 4 with 6:05 left, and took three minutes and 47 seconds to take the lead.

The Vikings and Knights finish the season in a three-way tie for second place in the De Anza alongside Hillsdale. The tiebreaker, CCS power points, favors Hillsdale and Palo Alto.

“I didn’t want to have to figure out if we qualified for an at-large bid,” DeGeronimo commented.

TKA is left wondering about the possibilities of an at-large bid, and considering the length of head coach Dante Perez’s postgame talk and the emotions from his players, the Knights aren’t optimistic about their chances.

“It’s not in our hands anymore,” Perez said. “It’s hard to win games when you drop balls.”

The fumbled kick return wasn’t the only drop in the second half for the Knights. Receivers struggled to hang on to Reid Black’s passes, a problem that was exacerbated after running back Jeaden Underwood suffered a knee injury in the third quarter. He briefly returned on the ensuing drive before being held out for the remainder of the night.

If Thursday was Underwood’s final game in a TKA uniform, he went out in style, carrying 22 times for 140 yards and a touchdown. His first run of the night went for 33 yards, and he had a 49-yard run to set up his team’s second touchdown, a 6-yard touchdown pass from Black to Kyle Welch on the final play of the first quarter.

“He left a stamp on The King’s Academy,” Perez said of Underwood. “Everybody in the league had to gameplan for him, and I hope there are coaches that see what he can do, because he can play at the next level. I played at the next level, and I know this kid can definitely play at the next level.”

Underwood’s 3-yard touchdown run with 4:50 left in the first half, his 19th rushing touchdown of the season and his 49th of his high school career, gave the visitors a 21-14 lead that they held until the start of the fourth quarter.

Palo Alto had tied the game three plays into the second quarter on back-to-back passes to Jason Auzenne, with Packer finding the senior receiver for a gain of 20 across the middle and a 34-yard touchdown strike down the right sideline.

The Vikings led 7-0 after an 11-play opening drive, capped off by Madrigal’s touchdown on a toss play on fourth-and-goal from the 1. TKA needed less than three minutes to answer as Black scored on a 1-yard QB sneak.

Underwood gained 128 of his yards in the first half before the Viking defense locked in.

“Our defensive ends stopped going upfield, and when they do that, they do really well,” DeGeronimo said.

When the defensive ends stuck to their assignments, Landa Mendoza profited from the outside linebacker position. After a quiet first half, the senior recorded three sacks across the final two quarters.

Kessler ran for 135 yards on just seven carries, buoyed by his two long touchdown runs and added a 10-yard reception, while Madrigal ran 12 times for 61 yards and caught three passes for an additional 12. Fung recorded an interception late in the second quarter, caught five passes for 67 yards and threw a 20-yard pass to Jake Wang for a third-down conversion on the opening drive. Wang finished with four catches for 40 yards.

Grant Shanafelt led the Knights with 94 receiving yards on six catches, and he intercepted a halfback pass in the second quarter. Two plays later, he gained 47 yards on a screen to set up Underwood’s touchdown run.

Linebacker Joshua Taylor became just the second player to intercept Packer this season when he picked off a pass over the middle late in the third quarter. He also recorded a sack, as did teammates Ethan Price and Nathaniel Vargas. Taylor also caught four passes for 36 yards, stepping up as a receiving option after freshman Adrain Barnett II (four catches-40 yards) left with an injury. Welch, who caught both of Black’s touchdowns, finished with seven receptions for 76 yards.

Both teams will officially learn their playoff fates on Sunday. Palo Alto, the reigning Division V champion, is expected to land in the Division IV bracket.