Adie Gonzalez

Last week’s district rivalry between the Santaluces Chiefs and the Park Vista Cobras ended the same way it’s ended every year since 2009: the Cobras flat out beat the Chiefs. The game wasn’t as close as the score indicates either.

The Chiefs came out of the gate firing. Their first touchdown drive came after a fumble recovery at their own 35. Senior quarterback Luis Martinez threw a 39-yard strike to Darrell Langham to set up a two yard touchdown run by senior running back Bernard Eberhardt. The Chiefs went on to score a 30 yard touchdown, but missed the extra point to make it 13-0.

Senior kicker Alvaro Casco’s missed extra point was just the start of a lot of problems that lead to the Chiefs week  4 loss. That lead to an interception that Park Vista was able to take 55 yards to the house with 8:19 to go in the half.

What can happen in eight minutes? Well, the Chiefs’ not only blew a 13-0 lead, but they also lost Martinez in that half with a knee injury.

The second half started how every team not named the Chiefs would like. Martinez returned to the game for the Chiefs and threw his second interception of the game. That only led to the inevitable 65 yard touchdown off a short pass to Park Vista’s speed devil Emmanuel Smith.

The struggles didn’t stop there for the Chiefs (Yeah, no one saw that coming). The ensuing kickoff was recovered by Park Vista in Santaluces’ side of the field. Typically, an onside kick is recovered before reaching the 50 yard line. Regardless of what happened exactly, the Chiefs gave up the best field position Park Vista saw all game. That’s right, you guessed it: Park Vista scored another touchdown to make it 28-13.

Second half struggles seem to be the theme this year for the Chiefs. They nearly blew a 24-14 lead when they hosted Lake Worth before allowing 30 unanswered points to the Cobras in Friday night’s loss. Although it was their first loss of the season, it may not be their last if this trend continues.

Their next opponent, Jupiter (2-2), also struggled in the second half, giving up a pair of touchdown passes to Cardinal Newman to blow a 14-10 lead. The Chiefs have always been big on stopping the run and they’re going to need to do a whole lot to stop Jupiter’s run game. Running back Cody Wilson reached the end zone three times and rushed for 92 yards in their loss. Oh, and he only ran the ball six times that game. For those who aren’t too into math, that’s good. Really good.

The Chiefs don’t really have to worry about the pass game, however. Jupiter threw the ball just five times against Cardinal Newman. They only completed one pass. The throw came from their running back. Not to say their passing game isn’t very effective, but it’s not.

The game is going to be played in Jupiter (the city, not the planet. You’d think a clarification wouldn’t be necessary). The Chiefs are 1-0 on the road, but have only scored one time away from home. The Chiefs need to bounce back from their district loss quickly if they want to stay in the district playoff race early.

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Adie Gonzalez