Krop High School has had success in numerous sports since its inception in 1997.

Winning seasons in football, however, have been scarce.

The Lightning took a big step toward changing that trend Thursday night at North Miami Stadium when it beat North Miami 23-10 to clinch its first postseason berth since 2001 -- the only other time it made it to the playoffs.

Krop (5-4, 4-1 in District 12-6A) secured the runner-up spot behind district champion Carol City and will face the District 11-6A champion, which will be either Weston Cypress Bay or Miramar Everglades, in a Region 3-6A quarterfinal in two weeks.

``This feels great because it's been a long time coming for the school,'' said second-year Krop coach David Hudson. ``We've all received a lot of support from the community and everyone at the school, and I'm just grateful.''

Hudson credited a big part of the Lightning's drastic improvement following a 3-7 season to the hiring of former University of Miami star Earl Little as its defensive coordinator.

Little's squad made the big plays Krop needed once again Thursday, grabbing two interceptions in the fourth quarter.

Junior Lekambrick Hanna got the first one and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown to put the game out of reach. Hanna has eight all-purpose touchdowns this season and made a spectacular return in which he reversed direction at North Miami's 30-yard line after he appeared to be ready to run out of bounds.

Senior Gerald Love secured the other interception to prevent the Pioneers (3-6, 2-3) from scoring.

``Every game, the team counts on me to make a big play so I had to come through,'' Hanna said. ``When I'm on a return like that, I'm thinking about six points.''

Krop quarterback Marlon Kelly completed 7 of 17 passes for 167 yards and threw for a touchdown to lead the Lightning's offense. Kelly ran in a 2-yard touchdown run with 10:17 left in the fourth to break a 10-10 tie.

• Northwestern 61, Miami Beach 0: Through the first six games of the season, the Northwestern offense averaged 153 rushing yards and 31 points per game. But over the past three weeks, including Thursday's rout of Miami Beach at Traz Powell, the Bulls have churned out 265 yards on the ground and averaged 56 points per game.

The difference?

Coach Billy Rolle took over the play-calling duties three weeks ago and has turned the Bulls into a run-first team.

``We have three all-star caliber running backs and a good offensive line . . . so we just wanted to do some different things to get the ball in their hands so they can make plays,'' Rolle said.

Northwestern (8-1, 5-0 District 13-6A) showcased those three running backs Thursday, as Corvin Lamb, Israel Linder and Jerrill Jenkins combined for 146 of the Bulls' 210 rushing yards.

Jenkins took majority of the carries in the second and third quarter, and he enabled the Bulls to take a 48-0 into halftime when he pushed through defensive line for a 5-yard touchdown.

The Bulls didn't completely abandon the pass as junior quarterback Teddy Bridgewater completed 5 of 8 passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns.

Miami Beach fell to 3-6, 0-6.

-- J.T. WILCOX

• Columbus 60, Ronald Reagan 0: With their district title already wrapped up, the Columbus Explorers were looking for nothing more than to stay sharp and make quick work of Ronald Reagan High School at Milander Stadium.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@