INLAND FIELDHOUSE

Anyone not living NorCal is lying if they said they saw this coming: Palo Alto 15, Corona Centennial 13.

It’s a huge turn of events. Centennial was favored by at least two touchdowns, and instead LOST by two points. Tuning to the game in the closing moments, FOMB knew all it needed to know when the FOX Sports West cameras panned the Huskies’ sideline and found QB Michael Eubank. He was joyless, emotionless; just like the rest of his teammates and coaches. It was a sure sign that the game had gone very badly for Centennial.

Friday night’s scoreline suggests many things.

1. Palo Alto is much better than it was given credit. Coach Earl Hansen’s defense had allowed just 9.4 points per game coming into this game and held Centennial, a team that averaged 54.1 in 2010, to a season-low 13.

2. Palo Alto senior QB Christoph Bono (6-foot-2, 175 pounds) is a chip off the old block. The son of former NFL star, Steve Bono, Christoph passed for two TDs and finished 13 of 23 for 215 yards in the biggest game of his young life. He’s sure to play in bigger games in the future.

3. Defenses can’t stop Eubank, but they can, apparently, contain him. He still managed to run for a 33-yard TD in the fourth quarter and totaled 214 (111 pass, 103 rush) yards but completed just 10 of 20 pass attempts, and was stuffed on a fourth-and-goal run attempt on Centennial’s last trip into the red zone.

4. Centennial can make mistakes. A safety in the first quarter gave Palo Alto an early 2-0 lead, and a fumble by RB Barrinton Collins in the second quarter also proved costly as Bono drove Palo Alto down the field for the game’s first touchdown.

5. Centennial, perhaps, peaked too soon. The Huskies ran roughshod through the regular season and the CIF-Southern Section playoffs, defeating teams by an average of 40 points, so their collective confidence had to be brimming. But a loss of focus (the safety) and the loss of Collins (concussion) proved to be too much to overcome in the biggest game of the season.

6. These 2010 Huskies were not the best Inland Area team of all-time (that’d be Fontana ’87). This was not even the best Centennial team of all-time (that’d be ’08). And scoring just 13 points at Home Depot Center proves it.