Palmdale Better Equipped in Shutout of Chaminade

Chaminade High Coach Rich Lawson wanted to reach out and grab someone before Friday night’s football game against Palmdale. He literally was at the end of his cord.

But he couldn’t have phoned in his team’s 35-0 nonleague loss to host Palmdale even if he had wanted. The phones didn’t work.

That was just one of the problems as the bigger and quicker Falcons squared their record at 1-1 and dropped Chaminade to 1-1-1.

Lawson initially was upset over the extremely short cord he was afforded for his headphones, then he discovered the phones were not even working. His coaches rectified both problems by halftime, but by then, Chaminade trailed, 20-0.

“I’m not going to use that as an excuse, but it’s nice if the other school provides the proper equipment,” Lawson said. “But that’s not why we lost. They had more team speed than we did.”

And a better defense. Palmdale picked off three Chaminade passes and held the Eagles to 103 yards in offense. Chaminade never got closer than the Palmdale 31-yard line.

Meanwhile, the Falcons, spearheaded by Anthony Ortega’s three touchdown runs, rushed for 183 yards and controlled both lines of scrimmage.

The Palmdale defense set the tone for the game early. Kalonji Watts picked off Jeff Meyer’s second pass of the night and raced 57 yards untouched to the end zone. Tom Leite’s kick put Palmdale ahead, 7-0.

After forcing a short Chaminade punt, Palmdale drove 42 yards to another touchdown. Ortega went the final yard over the left side of the line as the Falcons took a 14-0 first-period lead.

Chaminade, which managed just 67 first-half yards, had as many fumbles (four) as first downs in the first period, although the Eagles recovered all of them.

Palmdale scored again just before halftime, Ortega’s two-yard run culminating a 15-play, 80-yard drive.

After a fourth-period interception by Ortega, Palmdale scored again when quarterback Jay Mapson tossed a 39-yard touchdown pass to Rudy Martinez.

The final Falcon touchdown came when Ortega culminated a short 28-yard march with a three-yard run.

Ortega led all rushers with 84 yards in 21 carries. Teammate Vashon LeCesne added 73 yards in 13 carries.