‘I don’t think we’ve hit our ceiling’: Why the Placer Hillmen might be a big darkhorse
The Placer High football team played with backs against the wall seemingly all season.
The Hillmen began 0-5 against opponents with a combined record of 34-12, all playoff teams. Since the start of Foothill Valley League play on Oct. 1, Placer has played must-win football, needing four wins in as many weeks to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
Friday was no different.
In a playoff opener mirroring No. 6 Placer’s regular season journey, No. 11 West Park made a statement before the Hillmen found their footing. After 566 yards of offense, Placer kept its momentum rolling into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs with its fifth straight win, a 63-28 grind at LeFebvre Stadium.
“We continued to get better and weather the storm,” Placer head coach Joey Montoya said. “All we needed to do was get in the dance.”
Everyone in Auburn has their dancing shoes on. Lavelle Davis produced his fifth game of over 200 rushing yards, punctuated by touchdown runs of 45, 57, 14 and 38 yards. Davis was complemented in Placer’s venerable wing-T offense by sophomore Kosta Aleksic (127 rushing yards, three TDs) and senior Gage Parada (86 yards, one TD).
Placer (5-5) also saw a 58-yard scoring connection from quarterback Andy Hall to Alejandro Prieto. The offensive line of Diego Perez, Gildo Gijon, Zander Esty, Collin Bray and Jaxon Ramirez took care of the dirty work up front.
“We just changed our practice habits,” said Davis, who entered Friday as the third-leading rusher in the section. “We worked hard in the weight room and we just kept working, kept working and we pulled through.”
West Park struck early and often. Junior quarterback Develle Barksdale snuck in a 1-yard touchdown run and broke at least five tackles on a dazzling 94-yarder to put the Panthers up 15-7. Barksdale rushed for 232 yards while completing 20 of 27 passes for 268 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown to Ryan Sisson.
Brayden Bolden had a scoop-and-score fumble recovery that gave West Park a 21-14 lead before Placer turned things around.
“They played hard,” Montoya said of West Park. “They had some great little schematic things that went in their favor, and they’re going to be tough in the years to come.”
After claiming a 35-21 halftime lead, the Hillmen outscored West Park 28-7 in the second half, ending a historic maiden voyage from the young Panthers from Roseville. West Park became the first Sacramento-area school to have an unbeaten, outright league title in its first varsity season, wrapping up the Greater Sacramento League at 5-0.
Like Placer, West Park (6-5) struggled early, going 0-4 before winning its final six regular-season games to earn a spot in the D-IV field. Head coach Jason Tenner and his team will join Placer in the FVL next season.
“Our season’s already a success,” Tenner said. “We don’t have the depth of leadership and physical maturity yet. I only have a handful of kids who can drive (a car). We’re still growing up.”
Montoya appreciates what the Panthers accomplished in their initial varsity season. The last area team to launch its varsity program with a league championship was a Montoya-coached Pioneer squad from 2004. Montoya’s Patriots finished 4-1 and shared the Golden Empire League crown with Lindhurst.
While it may not have been an outright title, a banner still hangs from that ’04 season at Pioneer – along with many more over Montoya’s 17 years.
While FVL mate Lincoln, the second seed in the D-II bracket, snapped Placer’s streak of eight-straight league banners, the Hillmen still look to reach a section final for the fifth consecutive time. They last won it all in 2017.
Now with a mostly injury-free postseason roster, the Hillmen aim to be a dark horse in the D-IV bracket. The next stop is a quarterfinal matchup at No. 3 Vista del Lago, which beat Placer 47-37 on Sept. 10.
“I don’t think we’ve hit our ceiling yet,” Montoya said. “Usually by now, you are who you are and it comes down to just executing and playing at a high level. We’re still scratching the surface of what we could be. If we take big strides and at least get close to our ceiling – that’s how far back we started from our normal spot – we’ve got a shot.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 7:16 AM.