The American Youth Football playoffs move into the second round this weekend with the Palo Alto Knights's Jr. Pee Wee team opening play against Oak Grove South at Palo Alto High on Sunday at 11 a.m., after having a first-round bye. The Knights earned a week off after finishing 7-1 in the regular season.

Palo Alto lost to Oak Grove South in a jamboree game, 12-6, that didn't count in the standings but did beat Oak Grove two weekends ago, 18-12, to earn the first-round playoff bye.

The winner of Sunday's game goes to the AYF NorCal Championship the following Sunday. Should Palo Alto win, it could face Oak Grove West in the title game.

"They defeated us 28-0 in the second week for our only loss on the season," said Knights' coach Mike Piha. "Nobody has scored on them this year, so we hope we can get a shot at them in the championship game."

The NorCal champ will advance to the Northwest Mountain Regional in Sacramento November 28, with that winner moving on to the AYF Under Armour National Championships on Dec. 5-12 in Orlando, Fla.

The Palo Alto Jr. Pee Wees won't have a lot of company this weekend after two other Palo Alto teams lost playoff games and a third finished its season in a bowl game.

The only Palo Alto winner last weekend was the Cadet squad, which handed host Oak Grove West a defeat in San Jose, 8-7. .Palo Alto was down 7-0 with six seconds to go in the game and scored on a 74-yard "hide the ball" trick play (the QB gets the ball from the center and walks to the sideline holding the ball up, acting like he has the wrong ball and then sprints down the side line).

After Palo Alto scored, the Knights elected to kick the extra point for the win (very rare for a Cadet team) and they made it to win the game. The Cadets (6-3) play Oak Grove South at Oak Grove High School on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. If the Cadets win this weekend, the team advances to the NorCal Conference championship and receive an automatic bid to the AYF Under Armour National Championship in Orlando, Fla.

If Palo Alto loses, it will have one more shot at a third-place game the following week to advance to Florida as Palo Alto's conference gets three Cadet teams in the National Championships.

Elsewhere, the Palo Alto Midgets dropped a 39-21 first-round game to the Grant Chargers in Sacramento, the Pee Wees were eliminated by the Oakland Dynamite, 19-0, at Palo Alto High while the Tiny Mites fell to Oak Grove West, 18-12, in the finals of the Tiny Mite Bowl.

In the Tiny Mite Bowl at Anzar High in San Juan Bautista, Palo Alto won two 20-minute games to reach the finals against Oak Grove West. The championship game went into overtime after the teams finished in a 12-12 tie.

Oak Grove won the toss and scored on its first drive. Palo Alto had the ball with a fourth-and-one situation, needing only a yard to tie the game. The Knights ran a sweep to the left but were stopped short of their goal.

"It doesn't get any better than that," Palo Alto coach Don Kinnamon said of how the season ended. "It was sort of a heartbreaker, but the kids learned a lot.

-- PA Weekly Online Sports