After a whole season of practicing, preparation, and anticipation the Palisade football team went head on into the first game of the playoff round. On Saturday, November 16th students, friends, and families witnessed the greatest, nail-biting high school football game this season, as tensions were high on the field and in the stadium. The Palisade Bulldogs faced off their toughest competitor in the most important game of the season with a phenomenal performance by Palisade putting an end to their first game in the playoffs with a winning score of 27-24.
The game started off with a Palisade touchdown by Carter Hayward, and from there on both teams showed strong resilience, and there was much encouragement on the sidelines uplifting each other through each play. Senior Michael Kemmis has been playing football all four years of his high school career for Palisade High School and commented. “Good play, bad play, next play is a motto we go by in our team, and it means that no matter whether the play was good or bad we just have to keep focused on the next play and get into the right state of mind to commit to each play. That mindset of all of us on the team helped to uplift the team spirit.” Kemmis plays middle linebacker and states that the biggest accomplishment for him as a player was being able to stop the run plays of the Timnath Cubs.
There are lots of components to a football team. Many players have their own roles and each one carried their weight in this game, making each component fall into place earning them the win. The head coach of the Palisade football team, Joe Ramunno, has been coaching for Palisade for 4o plus years, and was very proud of each phase that the players conquered. “Our biggest success came towards the end of the game. We really had all three phases kicked in, and we played really well down the stretch to get the victory. We were down 10 points with 10 minutes 40 seconds left. We were able to put a long drive together and Carter Hayward kicked a really nice field goal. Our defense did really well at keeping the Cubs back and out of field goal range and that was definitely the most rewarding part of the game.”
The Palisade football team has done an exceptional job this season, and the long hours of practice, and film are paying off and it is evident to many people. Congratulations on the amazing win for the Palisade football team on winning their first Playoff game of this season and make sure to show up to the next playoff game at Stocker Stadium on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to show support for our Palisade Bulldogs!
