The Palo Alto High School football team (1-0-2, 0-0-0) suffered a tough loss to the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs (2-0-1, 0-0-0) with a final score of 41-7 on Friday at the Viking Stadium.
The Monarchs scored their first touchdown early on in the first quarter, and continued to dominate the game from then on, barring a few strong offensive plays by the Vikings. Paly has lost to Mitty in football for six consecutive years.
According to Paly head coach Danny Sullivan, the Vikings’ struggle lies in a lack of mental strength and resilience, which they have been fighting for multiple weeks.
“You’ve got to keep fighting,” Sullivan said. “We find a way to let the mistakes just completely snowball out of control and against good teams you can’t have that. We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot. That’s two weeks in a row, and we really need to find out what’s going on and get a solution quick.”
Despite this, many of the players are determined to succeed, according to Sullivan.
“A lot of these guys aren’t going to quit,” Sullivan said. “It’s a full blown mentality.”
Paly welcomed sophomore Jackson Chryst as its starting quarterback for the first time, as senior Jordan Schilling sat out with an injury. The Vikings’ single touchdown was scored on a beautiful pass from Chryst to senior tight end Jamie Cullen, who ran into the end zone.
“I was pretty nervous, but once you first get hit it’s just like any other football game,” Chryst said.
Junior running back Paul Jackson III held up his reputation as a major force in the Vikings’ offense throughout the game.
Mitty plans to fix its more technical problems, though the team is happy with how it is currently progressing, according to head coach Keith Burns.
“We’re making strides,” Burns said. “We’ve gotten better from the first week. We need to pay attention to the little details. We had way too many penalties tonight. We need to keep focus and concentration.”
The Vikings are looking to improve their performance and stay consistent with their level of play, according to Sullivan.
“When we’re right [playing well], we’re pretty darn good,” Sullivan. “When we’re not then we’re not very good. A lot of that falls on myself, and we will hopefully find a way to get these guys better going forward. We’re trying to find any light we can moving forward.”
Paly will face off against Oak Grove High School (0-0-2, 0-0-0) at 7 p.m. this Friday in San Jose.