LANTANA – This season, there aren’t many teams in Palm Beach County that have been as surprising as the Santaluces Chiefs.
After finishing last season with a 6-4 record, the Chiefs (4-1; No. 7 in New Era Prep’s latest Top 10) have elevated their performance to new heights, winning four consecutive games after starting the regular season with a 40-32 loss to Forest Hill in the season opener.
“We’re getting there,” Santaluces head coach Brian Coe said about the team taking the next step. “It’s a process, and slowly but surely the kids are getting there. Our focus this year was to take one game at a time, but our end goal is to compete for a district championship. Anything short of that, we feel like we didn’t accomplish our goal.”
The Chiefs, who came out on top in our readership-based Team of Week 6 and Week 7 polls, currently sit firmly atop the Class 8A District 11 standings, with Park Vista, John I Leonard and Spanish River sitting behind them.
At a roster standpoint, the rise of the Chiefs compared to last season has come at a surprise considering the talent they were tasked with replacing in the offseason.
As players like Andy St. Hillaire (Keiser), Angerlyns Julceus (Keiser), Jerson Jacques (Keiser), and Anthony Caldwell (St. Thomas) moved on to college football at local programs, Coe and the Chiefs were not only tasked with finding new starters for multiple different positions, but also finding new leaders.
“We had two returners on defense: a middle linebacker and a defensive linemen, so they had to gel and bond quickly,” Coe said. “Jordan Brown [has] stepped up tremendously to be a leader on this team, which we pegged him his sophomore year to be a leader, and he’s now stepping up and doing that, and we’re excited about that. Eric Martinez, we got him back from injury, and he is holding it down for us on the inside.”
One of those leaders is running back Val Carnegie, who ranked third among running backs and No. 21 overall in New Era Prep’s summer Top 50 for 2020 players. Early on in the season, Carnegie has proved to be a valuable leader for a Chiefs offense that has averaged 30 points per game.
“I had the opportunity to coach against [Val Carnegie] in little league, and he has been a football player ever since then,” Coe said about the senior running back. “When I got here three years ago, his sophomore year, he got baptized by fire. He was getting drilled every play, we were inexperienced. He stayed with it and I told him, ‘Val, this is your team’ and he stepped up to the challenge and got in the weight room this year.”
Carnegie, along with other running backs, have turned the Chiefs into an electrifying rushing offense, capable of beating teams with multiple pieces.
“Val Carnegie is, in my opinion, one of the best backs in the county, and we go as he goes,” Coe said. “We got some guys behind him that are pulling their weight. Brian Coe at fullback is doing a good job up there lead blocking, running when he gets his number called. We got Taenard Boyd, who is running the football well.”
The beginning part of the season has been defined by convincing wins, including a dominating performance against Cardinal Newman, who ranked fourth in the county at that point.
Despite that, Santaluces handedly defeated Cardinal Newman 28-7. The upset almost acted as revenge for a loss to the same Cardinal Newman team in the spring.
“That was a goal we had,” Coe said about defeating Cardinal Newman. “We got embarrassed in the spring by them. They put it on us 21 to nothing, and that was our internal test for the season to compete against that same team.”
As the end of the season nears, the road to a district title sits in the hands of the Chiefs.
With just four games remaining on the schedule, two of the games sit as important district tilts, with the first coming this week (Oct. 11) against John I. Leonard. Their final district matchup comes two weeks later, when they host rival Park Vista.
PHOTO CREDIT: Keith Forde
