Two years, two different schools. Two state football champions from the same county. This just doesn’t happen — even in larger counties.

It’s unprecedented. Historic. Surreal. Mindblowing.

Yet, for the second straight year, it feels like it has not been properly embraced, celebrated as a historic moment for an entire region — at least on social media.

Carmel High just didn’t win a state title Friday with a 48-7 win over El Capitan in the Division 5AA finals. It capped the first-ever 15-0 season for a program in the Pacific Coast Athletic League.

Carmel ran the gauntlet in beating three “A” league (top-tier) opponents in the Central Coast Section playoffs and then upsetting defending State Division 3A champion Acalanes of Lafayette for a Northern California title.

Somehow, instead of the Padres being hailed as state champions, on some corners of the social media critics are asking why Carmel didn’t play the regular season in the most competitive division of the PCAL.

Are we still talking about this 15 weeks later? I mean, sure the Padres went 3-0 against teams in the Gabilan Division (the top division in the PCAL) this past fall, beating Aptos 62-35 in the CCS Division III finals. So maybe there is an argument.

But that’s not where the PCAL committee placed them last fall. So are we going to continue to whine about that?

Critics berated Palma last year after it won the State Division 4A title, accusing the Chieftains of purposely forfeiting three games for using an ineligible player earlier in the year to drop a division.

To this day, I would find it hard to believe a program would want to enter the second half of the season 0-5 in the Gabilan Division.

But let’s not belabor something that’s a year old and just plain stupid. Did Carmel have the talent to compete in the Gabilan Division? Of course.

Would a football program that doesn’t train year-round be able to withstand the rigors of a Gabilan Division schedule? I think that’s the real debate.

We get enamored when we see University of Alabama-bound Jackson Lloyd and his 6-foot-7, 290-pound frame roughing up defenses as a right tackle for Carmel.

Yet, did anyone notice the 160-pound guard next to him? It’s pretty hard to miss. Or the 5-7, 150-pound linebacker who is fearless when called upon?

The last four games of the postseason took a toll on the Padres. At the hotel before Friday’s state title game, the school rented an entire ballroom just to set up training tables. You just don’t hear the coaching staff complaining about the injuries.

“Our training staff does an incredible job of getting these kids prepared each week,” Carmel coach Golden Anderson said. “Think about it. We’ve played a season and a half of football. The district made this a first-class trip for these kids.”

Because the Padres don’t have a year-round program, Anderson believes it might have benefited them during the postseason, in terms of having a few more miles on their legs after a four-plus month grind.

When you’re a roster with around 45 players — 95 percent of whom are multiple sport athletes — football is a priority for just four months, unless your last name is Lloyd.

There’s no off-season weight training because the core of this team is playing another sport in the winter and spring.

It’s encouraged at Carmel. It’s called competition, which in the long run never makes a moment too big for the Padres.

That’s been proven throughout the postseason when the Padres rallied from deficits against Hollister at halftime and Aptos early in the second quarter.

It happened again against Acalanes. There’s never a sense of panic. Just peek at the final play of the that game when Simeon Brown made one of the biggest tackles in county history on a potential game-winning 2-point conversion attempt with no time left.

Look closer at the Padres. How many of these seniors — which this team is built around — are going to play college football at a four-year school? Maybe two.

Those critics who hide behind a wall on social media, want to penalize a program with an enrollment of 730 kids for having success, without looking at the big picture.

Jealous, envy, vindictiveness. Let it go. What Carmel and Palma — not to mention Soquel — have done in successive years is put a county, an entire region on the state map. It’s respect for an area that often gets ignored.

And before barking about how Carmel wins all the time, let me remind you coming out of the pandemic, it went 3-5 and 5-5, missing the postseason in 2021 and 2022.

This was a process, a culmination of seeing the big picture and sticking to a plan that started in 2021, when these seniors were still in the eighth grade.

“You know what means a lot to me,” Anderson said. “It’s having (Palma coach Jeff) Carnazzo, (King City coach Mac) Villanueva, (Salinas coach Steve) Zenk and (Scotts Valley coach Louie) Walters offering support, even coming to the games. It’s nice to have coaches with great programs reaching out.”

Carmel never set a goal to win a state title. All it cared about when practice began in August was to keep The Shoe Trophy (awarded to the winner of the Pacific Grove-Carmel game) on campus.

Along the way, the wins began to pile up, along with a Mission Division South title, a Central Coast Section Division III crown — its first in 15 years — and the program’s first Northern California championship.

“This (state) was not our goal,” Anderson said. “State was so off our radar when the year began. We’re a seasonal football program. But when we got into the tournament, we said let’s try and win it.”

Did you know nine of the 15 opponents the Padres faced this year were playoff teams?

Unlike most programs, the process won’t begin again in January. The weight room is open. It’s just most are involved in other sports.

There will be a rebuilding process. You don’t replace your quarterback, tailback and top three receivers overnight, not to mention Lloyd on both sides of the ball.

You don’t retool a defense that’s losing a handful of starters without dealing with some growing pains.

If Carmel ends up in the Gabilan Division next fall, so be it. The numbers, particularly at the lower levels, as well as their record, don’t necessarily warrant it.

But can we at least put that aside for a few days and honor the achievement? Let’s put this in perspective for a moment.

We’ve had two state football champions. Two state basketball champions. One track and field boys team title and one boys golf state crown in the past 35 years.

That’s it.

Am I reaching you? This is hard. It’s rare. Six state champions. It’s an enormous achievement. Add the undefeated season and it truly is a surreal moment that needs to be celebrated.