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Palo Verde’s Chamere Thomas runs over Shadow Ridge in Northwest battle

Palo Verde running back Chamere Thomas has felt like the most underrated running back in the Northwest League the entire season.

So, knowing the Class 4A leading rusher — Shadow Ridge’s Aubrey Nellems — was visiting for a crucial Friday night game, Thomas had a chip on his shoulder.

And while Nellems watched from the sideline after being ejected in the first quarter for fighting, along with Palo Verde’s Hassiet Alem, Thomas ran for 147 yards on 14 carries, including three touchdowns, to lead the Panthers to a 55-22 win.

Thomas also hauled in a 50-yard score from quarterback Nick Zuppas, who completed 3 of 5 passes for 84 yards and ran for a score.

“The only thing that was going through my mind was I gotta get to the touchdown,” Thomas said. “I just gotta get to the touchdown so we can win this game. Because if we win this game and the next one we’re going to the playoffs.

Palo Verde (4-4, 2-3 Northwest) moved into a fourth-place tie with the Mustangs (5-3, 2-3) with the win. But more importantly, the Panthers now own the tiebreaker.

“We put ourselves in a bit of hole by not winning those early games, so we knew we had a plan — win the last three of our Northwest schedule,” Palo Verde coach Joe Aznarez said. “So far we’ve won two and we’ve got one more to go. We’ve had this game circled all year long.”

Shadow Ridge took an 8-0 lead on its first drive, when Nellems plowed in from a yard out. The Panthers also scored on their first drive, as Thomas took it in from eight yards out to make it 8-7.

And that’s when things went haywire, and Palo Verde took advantage.

An onside kick gave the ball back to the Panthers on the ensuing kickoff, and on the first play from scrimmage, Thomas scampered 35 yards for a touchdown. On Shadow Ridge’s next possession, just three plays in, Brock Weisheim fumbled the ball and Palo Verde’s I’Quahn Goins recovered it to give the Panthers the ball at the Mustangs’ 11-yard line.

Thomas scored his third touchdown of the game two plays later, and the Panthers led 21-8.

“It was the biggest thing that we ever did, that I ever did in my life,” Thomas said of scoring three touchdowns in a matter of minutes. “It was the momentum-changer. It made the game switch over from them scoring that eight points, to us racking up points over and over and over again.”

Zuppas scored a 1-yard run to extend the lead to 28-8 with 10 minutes, 55 seconds left in the second quarter. Palo Verde led 35-15 at halftime.

Brenton Lee finished with 113 yards and two touchdowns on six carries, and Chinonso Ugochukwu had a 66-yard fumble return for a touchdown for Palo Verde.

“We had a lot of breaks go our way that first quarter, and it helped us get this win,” Aznarez said. “We preach three phases, and our kids had a little extra momentum this week. Our special teams coordinator (Joe Hallead) was in the hospital five, six hours ago and he got out, so they wanted to make a lot of plays for him. So that was real special.”

Kody Presser finished with 115 yards rushing on 18 carries to lead Shadow Ridge.

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