Palma football

The Chieftains are holding their collective breaths this morning, awaiting the status of tailback Emilio Martinez.
 The junior was standing on the sidelines in the second half of Palma's 24-13 win over Aptos with his left arm in a sling after injuring it in the first half following a tackle.
 Martinez said through a direct message that he's heard a few different things on what the injury may be and wasn't sure exactly, but felt he'd be okay.
 Palma can survive short term without Martinez. But being out an extended stretch would be crippling for the program.
 Over the last two years, the Chieftains are 10-0 when Martinez tops 100 yards rushing, 1-4 when he doesn't.
 He came into the game with over 500 yards rushing in three games, including a pair of 200 plus yard efforts against two reigning section champions
 In his absence during a second half scoring drive on Friday, the Chieftains put the ball in the air eight times while running it just twice.
 The 5-foot-8 Martinez, who had 239 carries last fall en route to a 1,500 yard rushing season, had just 51 coming into the game.