No offense, no problem: Xavier Prep rides its defense to CIF-SS football semifinals
The offensive struggles for the Xavier Prep Saints continued in their CIF-SS Division 10 quarterfinal game Friday night.
But the Saints proved again there are other ways to win games. Friday, it was Xavier Prep's stout defense that shut down Kennedy of La Palma for the last three quarters as the Saints found just enough offense for a 10-7 playoff victory.
"It's just our identity," said linebacker Jesus Pazos, whose third-quarter interception was one of three turnovers forced by the Saints on Friday night. "It's been the defense. We take pride in that. We knew we were the best defense in the valley."
Xavier Prep took its first lead of the game in the fourth quarter when freshman quarterback King Pellum hit Braden Cervello with a short pass and Cervello broke two tackles to then race for a 57-yard score with 8:35 left in the game.
Cervello's extra point made it 10-7 Saints and gave Cervello all 10 points for Xavier Prep. Cervello had kicked a 35-yard field goal midway through the second quarter to cut Kennedy's lead to 7-3.
While the Saints (7-4) haven't scored more than 14 points in their last six games and lost the final three games in the Desert Empire League, head coach James Dockery isn't surprises by his team's run to the Division 10 semifinals.
"We are a very confident group of guys and we got to 5-1 with a big win over Palm Desert and I think emotionally I didn't do a good job of getting my team ready to go after such a big win for our program considering the rival game and all of that," Dockery said. "But hats off to La Quinta and Palm Springs and even Rancho (Mirage) because they showed us a few of our flaws that we needed to fix."
Kennedy (8-5) roared out in the first quarter with a grinding 66-yard scoring drive, all but 10 yards of it on the ground, to take a 7-0 lead. But the rest of the game was dominated by the two defenses.
Xavier Prep had chances for more points, including a fourth-and 1 at the Saints 5 to open the fourth quarter that was short-circuited by a false start penalty. But it wasn't until the Pellum-to-Cervello touchdown that the Saints looked like they could win the game.
"(Kennedy) was not the biggest team, but they were definitely physical," said Pazos, who is also one of the Saints' main running backs. "It was definitely a dogfight in the trenches. I am so glad to be a part of this team."
The stars
Cervello's 10 points led the Saints, with the field goal and the touchdown reception followed by the extra point. He finished the night with four receptions for 106 yards. Pazos and Tyson Ruiz each picked off passes for the Saints, while T.J. Bosley recovered a fumble for Xavier Prep early in the second half.
The moment
Having squandered a golden scoring chance inside the Kennedy 10 to start the fourth quarter, the Saints quickly forced a punt and took over at their own 43. On the first play of the drive, Pellum dropped back and quickly threw to Cervello on the left side of the formation. By breaking two tackles, Cervello found himself in the clear behind the Kennedy defense and outraced the defensive backs for what turned out to be the clinching score.
The chatter
"That's not necessarily the identity that we want," Dockery said of his team's continued strong play on defense. "We want to score more points. But at the end of the day, the only score that matters is a W or an L. We'll take the W, however they come. Honestly, believe it or not, we're confident to play a shootout if we need to. But with our type of defense that we can play, there aren't too many shootouts happening because we can take away what you are good at."
Pazos said the team was confident when the Division 10 playoffs began.
"Our first goal was to win DEL, but we want a ring this year," Pazos said. "We talked about it in the off-season, and I think we are ready."
The takeaway
The Saints made plenty of mistakes Friday night, the kind that generally doom a team in the playoffs. Yet the team managed another low-scoring victory. With just 24 points total in two playoff games and with less that 60 yards rushing Friday night against a strong Kennedy defense, it's easy to imagine the Saints are going to find a game where the lack of offense will hurt them. But Xavier Prep has given up just 10 points in those two playoffs games, and that keeps the team in games.
What's next
The Saints will play their second consecutive playoff game at home and their third playoff game in the Coachella Valley -- they opened against DEL rival La Quinta in a road game -- when they take on West Covina, a 14-10 winner over Beckman on Friday night. West Covina is 10-2 on the season.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Xavier Prep rides its defense to CIF-SS football semifinals
