Mission Oak falls to Palma-Salinas in state championship football game

PASADENA — Mission Oak capped off its historical high school football season on Saturday at the 2023 CIF State Division 4-A championship game.

The Hawks fell 42-19 to Palma-Salinas, a private school from Monterey County, but that defeat at Robinson Stadium at Pasadena City College didn’t overshadow what they accomplished this season.

Mission Oak won its first section title in school history in November, capturing a Central Section Division III plaque and also became the first team from the city of Tulare to win a CIF State regional crown.

Throw in a 10-win season and a mountain of memories and the fall of 2023 will forever be etched with those associated with Mission Oak football.

“I think one of the biggest things is, as much as this hurts, we’re the No. 2 team in the state,” Mission Oak second-year head coach Marty Martin said. “So when you take that back to where we were 17 months ago, nobody ever thought we be in this situation. So that part of it, we can take and hang on. Our seniors did a great job. My staff did a great job. When you lose like this, it just makes it tough.”

Palma’s power-rushing attack was the difference.

The Chieftains’ trio of running back Eli Dukes, quarterback Thomas Nunes and receiver Logan Saldate helped give the Chieftains a 21-0 lead at halftime.

Dukes’ eight-yard run in the opening quarter led to a 7-0 lead, and his second scoring jaunt, a three-yard plunge, extended Palma’s advantage to three touchdowns.

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Saldate, a Notre Dame commit, hauled a 54-yard scoring bomb in the second quarter. He led the team with six catches for 87 yards.

The combination of Dukes and Nunes running the ball gave the Chieftains an edge.

Dukes, a freshman, rushed for a game-high 203 yards on 31 carries. He scored four rushing touchdowns, finding the end zone on a 41-yard run in the third and a three-yard dart in the fourth.

Nunes, on mostly designed quarterback runs, racked up 90 yards rushing. His 29-yard scamper on the Chieftains’ second possession of the game led to Dukes' opening eight-yard score.

Palma rushed for 342 yards on 50 carries, which included two kneel downs to end the game. The Chieftains averaged 7.1 yards per carry. They also recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.

“We just didn’t execute,” Martin said. “They executed better than we did.”

Down 21-0, Mission Oak kept fighting in the second half.

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Hawks senior quarterback Danny Gonzalez fired a 21-yard touchdown to Kenny Jackson on the team’s first possession in the third quarter. Gonzalez also scored on a one-yard run to cut Palma’s lead to two scores, 28-13, but that was as close as Mission Oak got.

“Our kids play, that’s the one thing they do,” Martin said. “They don’t quit and they play hard. Sometimes, it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Gonzalez threw for 199 yards, completing 20-of-27 passes. Senior Cameron Azevedo had seven catches for 65 yards and Jackson finished with eight receptions for 65 yards. Achilles Sierra scored the Hawks’ final touchdown of the season on a 29-yard strike from Gonzalez with 4 minutes and 45 seconds left to play in the game.

“We’re a tough team,” Gonzalez said. “We’re a tough team. We’ve always been a tough team ever since we started. It showed in the Hanford game. It showed in the CVC game. It showed in this game as well. We’re always going to fight no matter what the score is, no matter how much time is left.”

Martin has done an incredible job since officially taking over the Mission Oak program in June 2022. Under his leadership, the Hawks have won 16 combined games, including six playoff contests.

Is Martin excited for the future?

“Absolutely,” he said. “Our freshmen team was 8-2 and they won the league. Our JV team was 7-3, probably should have been 9-1, and we’ve had seven more weeks to work with those young kids, so I’m excited for our future.”

Palma 42, Mission Oak 19

Palma       7          14              14         7           -              42

Mission Oak           0             0            13              6           -              19

First quarter

P – Eli Dukes 8 run (Gio Gutierrez kick), 4:00

Second quarter

P – Logan Saldate 54 pass from Thomas Nunes (Gutierrez kick), 3:33

P – Dukes 3 run (Gutierrez kick), :22

Third quarter

MO – Kenny Jackson 24 pass from Danny Gonzalez (kick failed), 10:38

P – Dukes 41 run (Gutierrez kick), 7:14

MO – Danny Gonzalez 1 run (Zuriel Cruz kick), 5:30

P – Nunes 5 run (Gutierrez kick), :59

Fourth quarter

P – Dukes 3 run (Gutierrez kick), 5:22

MO – Achilles Sierra 29 pass from Gonzalez (pass failed), 4:45

Individual statistics

RUSHING – Palma: Eli Dukes 31-203, Thomas Nunes 11-90, Noah Orozco 2-31, Logan Saldate 2-23, Tobias Perkowski 1-6, Logan Albertoni 1-5, Team 2-(minus) 2. MO: Kenny Jackson 6-14, Isaiah Rivera 2-23, Danny Gonzalez 7-18, Achilles Sierra 1-1.

PASSING – Palma: Nunes 7-12-0 89. MO: Gonzalez 20-27-1 199.

RECEIVING – Palma: Aidan Williams 1-2, Logan Saldate 6-87. MO: Jackson 8-37, Sierra 2-30, Cameron Azevedo 7-65, Rivera 1-2, Jacob Ramirez 2-65.

Records – Palma 11-4, Mission Oak 10-6.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Mission Oak falls in CIF State Division 4-A championship game