Wade returns from injury to carry West Park over Placer for biggest win in school history

There was a point in the second quarter Friday at Placer High School in Auburn when West Park senior running back Westin Wade thought his season was done.

After exploding for two touchdowns on West Park’s first four offensive plays, Wade and company looked to be in control until Wade heard a pop.

“I was devastated,” said Wade, who didn’t play at all in the third quarter.

He later realized it was just a rolled ankle and chose to give it a go late in the fourth. Wade would lift his team to the biggest win in school history, a 41-38 overtime victory in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV quarterfinal.

“I had to come back out here,” he said. “I had to really step up and really put myself back together.”

Good thing for the Panthers that he did.

West Park, which set a school record with its 10th win, has another chance to extend its season. The Panthers will head to top-seeded Escalon in next week’s D-IV semifinal.

After leading Placer 35-21 at halftime, West Park surrendered 14 straight points to the Hillmen in the second half, sending the game to overtime. Placer took a 38-35 lead on a 27-yard field goal from Kevin Martinez, but on West Park’s OT drive, Wade finished the game the way he started it, reaching the end zone on a 13-yard touchdown catch from Jaden Jackson.

“I swear to God, I had a vision,” Wade said after the game. “It was just me in the end zone after the win, just throwing that ball up.”

Wade is a West Park original, having been a part of the Panther football program since the school opened in 2020. Since its first varsity season in 2021, West Park has been in the playoffs every year. But Friday’s win against Foothill Valley League rival Placer is by far the program’s signature victory.

“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced,” West Park senior Ryan Sisson said. “I’ve been here since my freshman year, varsity since sophomore year, and this is definitely the highest level because we all came together and came back to win. It was awesome, especially since we’ve never beaten (Placer) before.”

After West Park recovered a Placer fumble on the opening kickoff, the Panthers exploded for three touchdowns on their first four offensive plays. Wade ran in a 40-yard touchdown on the game’s first play from scrimmage to quickly hoist West Park to a 7-0 lead.

Placer responded with a 9-yard scoring run from Parker Kelley to tie the score at 7-7. But the Panthers went right back to Wade. A 57-yard catch from Jackson preceded a 7-yard carry for Wade’s second straight TD.

The first play of West Park’s third drive saw Jackson hit Sisson for an 80-yard slant-and-go that gave the Panthers a 20-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Placer quarterback Rian Miller fed Keefer Abs for a 39-yard scoring catch on the Hillmen’s first drive of the second quarter. Luke Platzer’s interception on the ensuing West Park drive set the Hillmen up for a 10-yard Shaun Jones touchdown that gave Placer its first lead, 21-20, midway through the second.

West Park finished the half with back-to-back scores — a 3-yard run from Wade and a 12-yard keeper from Jackson — to give the Panthers a 35-21 lead at the half.

From there, Placer’s defense shut down the Wade-less Panthers while scoring on a 1-yard sneak from Miller and another short score from Jones to knot things up at 35 apiece.

With all momentum seemingly in Placer’s favor, West Park delivered the final blow on Wade’s walk-off touchdown.

“We’ve been trying to figure out how to get over the hump in these big championship-level games,” West Park coach Jason Tenner said. “Obviously, we lost the FVL title to (Placer) a couple of weeks ago and we felt like if circumstances were different, we’d be hosting tonight. We wanted to make sure that we came out with a win.”

Placer won the first three all-time meetings with West Park, including a 35-21 league-deciding game on Oct. 20 as the Hillmen outrushed the Panthers 380-47.

The first meeting between these two came in the 2021 postseason; Placer won 63-21. It was a historic season for the Panthers, however, as West Park became the first Sacramento-area school to win an outright league title in its first varsity season, claiming the Greater Sacramento League championship. The last team to grab at least a share of a league crown in its first varsity campaign was Pioneer in 2004, coincidentally coached by current Placer head coach Joey Montoya.

For the second time in the past three seasons, Placer began the first half of the season winless amid a brutal non-league schedule before running the table and earning a high playoff seed.

“This team has faced adversity and, through it all, has met the challenge,” Montoya said. “You tend to win in football with seniors, but because we have so few, it’s taken this team a little longer, but we started to hit our stride at the right time.”

Placer (6-5) has been in the postseason 15 consecutive years and has won at least one playoff game in 13 of those years.

West Park, which opened in 2020 in Roseville amid the pandemic, has been to the playoffs in each of its first three varsity football seasons.

“We don’t know what it’s like to not be in the postseason,” Tenner said. “Our season doesn’t really start until everyone else is turning in their pads. It’s cool to have that be the expectation from the get go.”

Tenner said West Park is keen on promoting “educational-based” athletics as a foundation of the school culture. The Panther football team had 33 players make the FVL All-Scholar Team with 3.5+ GPAs.

“I’m not a big slogan, speech or T-shirt guy,” Tenner said. “I just expect them to be great on the field, in the classroom and in the community. And we hold them accountable.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 11:58 PM.