BOYNTON BEACH – It was supposed to be a battle of two quarterbacks who were Santaluces teammates last season.
The script flipped, however. Santaluces starting quarterback, Jorris Sheppard was benched for Park Vista transfer, Jaxson Mariconi, while Boynton Beach transfer Chris Siska had an imprecise game.
The player who stole the show was Santaluces junior running back Kelsey Gerald, who powered for 129 yards and a game-winning touchdown midway through the fourth quarter as the Chiefs stole a 9-7 road victory Thursday, Sept. 4.
If anyone doubted the intensity this crosstown rivalry contains, a skirmish broke out during the postgame handshakes. Stadium officials turned on the water sprinklers on the field to chase the players off and the Chiefs sprinted to their bus with the win.
“It feels good,” said Gerald, who iced the victory with a 5-yard carry on fourth-and-4 with 30 seconds left. “They did a lot of talking on the internet. Our goal was to stay humble and focused. The fact we did what he had to do, we can go home feeling great.”
Santaluces coach Hector Clavijo is now 4-0 against Boynton Beach and planned to have his traditional post-victory meal of chicken wings and fries at a local eaterie to celebrate another triumph over the purple and gold. “They can’t beat me,” Clavijo joked.
In the pregame hype, Siska expressed frustration playing for Clavijo last season in a quarterback rotation with Sheppard, triggering the transfer to Santaluces’ rival. Siska said the situation “sucked” and predicted he would “shove it in their faces.”
That didn’t happen on a wet field that caused an hour delay to kickoff because of torrential rain and lightning. Siska never found a rhythm, with all the penalties.
As the Tigers (1-2) marched to the locker room after the loss, after losing a 7-3 fourth-quarter lead, a fight broke out between some of their players. None of the Tigers commented afterward.
“They were talking a lot,” Clavijo said. “Adults were talking more than the kids. But the best team won. It was a close game with kids who know each other.”
Regarding the postgame brouhaha, Clavijo said, “It was a misunderstanding. Two kids were jawing at each other, then the people trying to break it up caused more of a stir than anything. No punches were thrown. I didn’t know who the genius was who turned the water on but that doesn’t help.”
“I’m happy (Mariconi) played well,” Clavijo said. “No knock on the other kid. (Mariconi) got going and we left him in there. We decided pregame to try something different. It was a test run.”
Santaluces has two tests this upcoming week, finishing its game Monday at Palm Beach Gardens, trialing 21-14 but driving at the opponent 30 in the fourth quarter. Then it faces Palm Beach Central. Their new quarterback might’ve been discovered.
“I just performed better in practice,” Mariconi said. “I showed coach I can be a gamer. My team really wanted this win. (Boynton Beach) was talking a lot, but they were just trying to get in our heads. We knew we were the better team.”
Santaluces finally burst into the end zone midway through the fourth quarter to retake the lead. The Chief led 3-0 at halftime on Cristian Clavijo’s 42-yard field goal as time expired. It was a sloppy, flagfest of a first half.
On the game-winning drive, Gerald busted it up for 28 yards to the 15. On the next play, Gerald darted right and scampered in for the 15-yard score with 6:09 left. Santaluces missed the extra point but the Chiefs had the edge at 9-7.
“We wanted to run hard,” Gerald said. “We saw on film they weren’t that good with the run. We ran hard, banged it down the field and I eventually scored.”
Gerald is getting heavy interest from Syracuse, Florida State, UCLA, West Virginia, among others.
“(Gerald) doesn’t have a lot of mileage,” Clavijo said. “He’s a young back. It’s good for him to be in this situation when we need him. He took care of business. You look at him and he’s built like a horse and looks the part. But he’s an amazing kid. His demeanor, the way he talks to people. He’s first class. Glad we have him for two more years.’’
Boynton Beach went up 7-3 after a fortuitous roughing-the-passer penalty when Siska had nearly thrown an interception on a third-down toss. It set up a first down at the Santaluces 20.
Two days before kickoff, Clavijo said Sheppard and Mariconi were embroiled in a quarterback derby but the coach said Sheppard would start against Boynton Beach. The coach claimed he changed his mind during pregame drills.
Siska executed a 10-yard scramble and Freddy Cunningham, a recent transfer, scored on an eight-yard run with explosive up-front blocking.
But that was all Boynton Beach could do as Siska struggled. Defensive end Bernard Blanks was its defensive star with three sacks but a fourth sack was nullified by a facemask.
Santaluces nearly recorded another fourth-quarter score when Mariconi aired it out deep to an open Karl Montelus. But as Montelus dove, the ball trickled through his fingers. Montelus argued for a pass interference but Boynton Beach took over with 9:14 left and couldn’t manage a thrust.
“It was a great test for the kids,” Clavijo said. “They had to grind. We haven’t been in one of these. We needed this.’’
As Santaluces (1-1) celebrated on its bus back to Lantana, the Tigers were fighting amongst themselves.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Santaluces football preserves rivalry win streak over Boynton Beach
