Dillard capitalizes on turnovers to beat North Miami Beach for a tri-county title
Davondre Coeur threw a pass behind him early in the second half with no one there to catch it. Dillard defensive lineman Nyjalik Kelly charged for the ball near midfield and darted toward the end zone, only to be tripped up at the goal line. Two players later, Leonard Schultz ran in for a touchdown.
One drive later, it was Trevaughn Martinez with the big defensive play, intercepting the North Miami Beach quarterback to set up another short field and another eventual touchdown, this time a 1-yard run by Method Bradley.
With that, an undefeated season was in their grasp.
The Panthers forced six turnovers en route to their latest — and final — dominant performance of the 2020 season, a 32-6 win over North Miami Beach in the Class 6A-1A gold bracket championship game of South Florida’s tri-county tournament.
Dillard (6-0) cruised through its schedule in its first season under coach Tyler Tate, winning its first five games by a combined score of 218-38 heading into Thursday’s gold bracket championship. That included blowouts of 49-6 against Pahokee and 31-6 against Belle Galde’s Glades Central in the first two rounds of the tournament.
Thursday was no different. The Panthers were up 6-0 at halftime after Tyrease Clowers blocked a punt early in the second quarter and returned it for a touchdown while the defense spoiled a pair of North Miami Beach scoring opportunities, both coming when the Chargers had short fields.
In the first quarter, a long punt return set North Miami Beach up at the Dillard 20 yard line. A penalty and 5-yard loss on a quarterback keeper set up a third and 22. Couer complete a pass to Xavier Robiou in tight coverage, only for Robiou to fumble it at the 1-yard line. Dillard’s D’mon Brinson scooped it up.
With less than a minute left in the half, North Miami Beach was at the Dillard 5 yard line after an interception. They fumbled on the first play, with Kelly falling on it to keep the Panthers’ lead intact heading to halftime.
Kelly also had two of Dillard’s three sacks on Coeur.
North Miami Beach broke up the shutout on a 92-yard touchdown pass from Coeur to Phillip Dunnam, who caught a tipped pass near midfield, broke past the two defenders near him and ran unopposed after that to the end zone with 10:52 left in the game. The Chargers marched down the field one drive later to get to the Dillard 10-yard line only for Brinson to intercept Couer’s fade pass to end any hopes of a Chargers comeback.
Despite the loss, North Miami Beach had a successful season in its own right, going 5-3.
The Chargers upset 2019 Class 4A state champion Booker T. Washington 20-14 during the regular season and beat both Carol City (28-13) and Killian (34-16) in the first two rounds of the 6A-1A gold bracket to advance to Thursday’s championship.
Their two losses before Thursday: A one-point defeat at Lake City Columbia, which reached the Class 6A regional finals, and a 35-0 loss to 2019 Class 8A state champion Columbus, which is playing in the 8A gold bracket championship on Saturday against Deerfield Beach.
North Miami Beach has now posted back-to-back winnings seasons for the first time since 2006-2007, the best two-year spurt in the school’s history. The Chargers reached the state semifinal in 2006 before losing to Northwestern and the regional finals in 2007 before falling to Deerfield Beach.
6A - 1A Gold Consolation Game — Carol City 22, Booker T. Washington 21: It may not have been for the Tri-County 6A - 1A championship, but that didn’t keep the Chiefs and Tornadoes from putting on quite a show at Traz Powell Stadium that featured a wild finish.
Carol City trailed 21-7 entering the fourth quarter but put on a furious rally to pull out the win when kicker Ousman Jobarteh connected on a 27-yard field goal with 55 seconds left for the winning score as a huge special teams mistake by the Tornadoes wound up proving costly.
Trailing 21-13, Carol City quarterback Jaylon Williams found Rusty Macajoux for a 25-yard touchdown with 2:19 left. Not once but twice on the drive it appeared BTW had put the game away when first Horacio Johnson and then Semaj Flagg picked off Williams and returned it for a touchdown.
But both pick sixes were nullified by pass interference and roughing the passer penalties, respectively. When Macajoux spiked the ball after his score, the Chiefs were penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct putting the ball out on the 18 for the two-point try which failed.
Kicking off from the BTW 45 following a Tornado unsportsmanlike penalty, the ball hit at the two yard line and bounced backwards to the five. Inexplicably, Tornado players watched the ball hit but did not fall on it perhaps thinking it was a touchback.
Alert Carol City players fell on the live ball at the Tornado five setting up Jobarhe’s game-winning kick.
-Bill Daley
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 10:25 PM.
.JPG)