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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| David is a Goliath for Palisades High By Matthew Oliveira SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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If there were any lingering doubts as to what position Palisades High (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) senior quarterback David Koral was born to play -- and God only knows how there could be -- well, forget them.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound standout completed 39 of 59 pass attempts for a national-record 764 yards and seven touchdowns on Sept. 22, in the Dolphins' 48-30 non-league victory over Van Nuys Grant High. The eye-popping total bested the previous single-game national scholastic passing record of 672 yards, set by Rhett Lashlee of Shiloh Christian High (Springdale, Ark.), just last year. Koral, who will play for the Palisades baseball team this spring, threw touchdown passes of 80, 15, 42, 52, 94, 90 and 34 yards in the game. "They had their safeties up and we knew that we were going to be able to attack the field vertically and we were pretty successful at it," says Koral, 17, a 1999 All-State selection who set a state record last fall when he threw for 4,907 yards and 57 touchdowns. "I never thought it was going to be 764 (yards). Someone told me in the third quarter that I had like 600 yards, then, and I was like,'Wow, that's a lot.' "We just felt that the deep ball was working that day," he adds. "I don't think we could have been stopped." The Palisades offense almost never stops attacking -- the Dolphins ran the ball just twice in the entire game against Grant -- and that's just the way Koral likes it. "At Malibu, I maybe threw the ball 40 percent of the time," says Koral, who now estimates he's putting the ball in the air 'about 99 percent of the time' in coach Ron Price's offense at Palisades. "I would just pitch the ball and then lead block for the back. I love it here. They give me the opportunity to throw the ball all the time and I just love it." Perhaps the only thing more astounding than Koral's aerial accomplishment is the casual attitude that he and all of those associated with the Palisades program have about the feat. "His numbers were always good," says Price, whose team improved to 3-1 with a 28-0 win over Los Angeles High on Friday. Koral completed 22-of-46 passing for 293 yards and four TDs. "It's kind of a typical performance when you throw the ball just about every single play. What it all boils down to is how many plays you run and where you start your drives from. "For us, the concern was more the game," he adds. "I'd like to say that it was all about (the record), but we were really throwing to survive. It wasn't really a concern at the time, not to take anything away from Dave and his accomplishment." Koral's teammates were just as cavalier about the achievement, which eclipsed the teen's personal-best effort of 583 yards passing. "Dave's probably the best passer in the nation, so we pretty much know what to expect from him," says senior wide receiver Greig Carlson, who racked up nine receptions for 253 yards and three touchdowns in the Sept. 22 record-breaking performance. "It was kind of a shock to hear exactly how many yards he threw for, but we just kind of expect this kind of stuff from Dave. It was just another week, I guess."
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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