Palmdale strikes gold with Jefferson

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I don’t want to say there’s such a thing as a “good injury,” but would Palmdale have found out they have such a talented RB in Marquell Jefferson if regular RB Ronald Scott hadn’t gone down with an ankle injury two weeks ago?

“He kind of came out of nowhere this year,” Palmdale Coach Jeff Williams said. “We knew Marquell was a player, but we didn’t know how good he’d be after he missed the entire spring and summer.”

Jefferson suffered a hernia sometime last season and had it operated on in the spring, keeping him on the sidelines until the first week of September. The Falcons gave him the ball 10 times in a blowout over Kennedy, but otherwise had used him sparingly until their game two weeks ago against Knight.

Subbing for Scott, Jefferson ran for 245 yards and three TDs in the 41-12 victory over the Hawks before torching Antelope Valley on Friday with 228 yards and five TDs in the Falcons’ 49-12 triumph.

So even though Scott will be making his comeback Friday against Littlerock, you can expect a healthy dose of both RBs against the Lobos, since each guy brings a different style.

‘Scott is kind of like Eric Dickerson -- he’s upright and very fast,’ Williams said. ‘And Marquell is more like Earl Campbell -- he dips his shoulder and makes you pay every time he has the ball.’

Of course, let’s not forget about Connor Bradford & Co. for making this all possible. Bradford, who’ll be swapping green and black for blue and gold (actually, its a ‘deep sky blue and matching sun gold’) next year is one of the best lineman in Southern California and the O-line might be the strongest aspect of Palmdale’s offense.

Oh, and in case you didn’t get to see him perform in all his bespectacled glory, here’s some YouTube video of Football HOFer and former sideline reporter Eric Dickerson.

- Austin Knoblauch