The Santa Clara Bruins control the team’s playoff destiny. On Friday night, the Bruins head to Jefferson High School in Daly City. The winner of that game takes second in the El Camino Division and heads to the CCS playoffs.
Santa Clara worked its way into the position on Oct. 31, when the Bruins defeated Fremont High School 46-6. While the score was lopsided in Santa Clara’s favor, it could have easily gone a very different way if it weren’t for several key plays by the Bruins’ defense early in the game.
The defense forced Fremont to punt the ball early in the second quarter, but a bobbled punt return gave Fremont good field position. That’s when Santa Clara’s defense forced a four-and-out.
But on the ensuing punt, it happened again; another bobbled punt return, and Fremont had the ball with even better field position than the time before.
But Santa Clara’s defense was up to the task again. After the game, Head Coach Nelson Gifford praised his defense for its resilience.
“They could have easily, just kind of said, ‘Hey, it’s not our day.’ Given up a score. That could have made the game 15-7 early,” said Gifford. “Instead, they showed up two times in a row, got the stops, which then allowed us the opportunity for the offense to get out there, redeem themselves, and go out and put two more scores before the end of the half, which was really, really important.”
On the other side of the ball, the Bruins have sophomore Elijah Palomino-Hendrix under center. The young quarterback has grown into the role as the season has progressed, and it helps that he has a good cast of players around him.
“He’s gained a lot of confidence in himself in managing the offense, in building relationships with the receivers, but also the offensive line and then the running backs,” said Gifford. “That’s been probably the biggest piece to all this, at least the offensive side of the ball, is everyone understanding their role within the offense and trying to maximize those opportunities when they present themselves.”
Palomino-Hendrix and senior tight end Brian Flora connected three times for touchdowns in the first half alone. That connection will likely occur again on Friday, when the Bruins head to Jefferson High, but it won’t be the focus for Gifford. He and his coaching staff will keep it simple and spread out the offense.
“The thing that for me is exciting [is] lots of people touch the ball. It’s not necessarily funneled through a single person,” said Gifford. “Although we’ve had some single, some kids have some really excellent performances, individual performances, our offense is at our best when everyone’s sharing in the process.”
Santa Clara plays at Jefferson on Friday night at 7 p.m. Both teams are 3-1 in league play this season. Santa Clara is 3-2 in non-league play and Jefferson is 2-3.
Related Posts:
Coach Gifford Has Bruins Clawing Back to Gridiron Relevancy
Girls Sports Leveling Up: Evening the Playing Field with Flag Football
