Braddock’s bid for 3-0 start on hold vs. Coral Reef; Central, Homestead win in routs

Hoping to get off to their first 3-0 start in more than a decade, the Braddock Bulldogs will have to wait to see if they can accomplish the feat as their game against Coral Reef Thursday night at Southridge was suspended after two quarters due to inclement weather.

Braddock appeared to be on its way, jumping out to a 14-0 lead on Coral Reef late in the second quarter, but that lead was sliced in half when the Barracudas scored on the final play of the first half.

A game that had already started 30 minutes late due to a lightning delay wound up finding more of the same just seconds after halftime began as the lightning detector went off again. That was followed by a torrential downpour that soaked the field for the next 30 minutes.

Even though the game could’ve been deemed official since it reached halftime, athletic directors and head coaches from both sides met and decided to postpone the game with the plan to complete the game on Monday.

The remainder of the game, which is a key showdown for first place in the southern division of the GMAC Independent Conference, is tentatively scheduled to be played at Coral Reef High beginning at 4 p.m. but subject to change.

“Having to pull the plug on this and then come back on Monday is a challenge no doubt but something we always preach to our kids is have the ability to recalibrate,” Braddock coach Juan Torres said. “We deal with lightning in practice all the time and tonight was just an extension of that. When you live in South Florida at this time of year, these kinds of things are going to happen. We don’t cry about it, we just find a way to get it done. We’ll get back to it on Monday and try and finish this thing off.”

Torres pleasantly watched his Bulldogs pretty much dominate the entire first half.

They opened the game with a perfectly executed 70-yard, eight play drive to grab a 7-0 lead when quarterback David Garcia found Daniel Aleman for a four yard touchdown pass.

The Bulldogs (2-0) then increased the advantage to 14-0 when, following a short Coral Reef punt, went 39 yards in seven plays before Garcia found William Gonzalez wide open in the back of the end zone for a six yard touchdown 4:31 before halftime.

It appeared that Braddock would take that lead to the halftime locker room when the Bulldogs made a terrible miscalculation at the end of the first half.

With Braddock punter D.J. Mendoza lined up to kick the ball away and the clock ticking with under 15 seconds to go, the Bulldogs could have run the clock all the way down to just one second before taking a five-yard delay of game penalty and then just taken a knee and gone to halftime.

But they snapped it with 13 seconds left and the ball went high over Mendoza’s head. When Coral Reef’s Frank Farinas recovered the ball at the Braddock 12, there was still one second left on the clock.

The Barracudas (2-1) took maximum advantage of the opportunity when quarterback Colin Ferzli dropped back and wide receiver Luca Radu wide open in the corner of the end zone for the score to make it 14-7 as the teams headed off to the locker room.

Adding to Braddock’s frustration was the fact Coral Reef had lost a pair of fumbles inside its own territory including one time at its own 12 and the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on either opportunity. One of the drives ended when Garcia was intercepted by Jalen Tanner in the end zone.

“I feel like we could’ve capitalized more because our defense gave us some nice opportunities and we didn’t do that,” Garcia said. “We managed to find the end zone twice but we also had a couple other chances that we didn’t cash in on.”

Garcia said that he and his teammates will deal with having to finish the second half of a game four days after the first half.

“Adversity is what we pride ourselves on dealing with,” Garcia said. “We just have to stay focused, stay locked in and hopefully get a practice or two in over the weekend. Our boys can play out there so we’re just going to have to come ready to play on Monday and finish what we started.”

Asked about his team’s start to the season and the outlook for what could bring plenty of wins down the road, Torres was definitely upbeat.

“The summer for us was a lot of hard work Monday through Friday with the kids putting in the work and that’s why we’re 2-0 right now and playing good football in the first half of this game,” Torres said. “Hopefully we can finish it off on Monday. I firmly believe these kids are a good group and if we can stay healthy, I don’t see why we can’t win out.”

MORE SCORES

▪ Central 34, Carol City 0: Quarterback Keyone Jenkins and Ean Pope each had two touchdown runs to lead the Rockets (3-0), ranked No. 4 nationally by MaxPreps, to the victory in a game that was called official after halftime due to inclement weather.

▪ Homestead 44, Southwest 0: Isaac Brown, Ryan Bullard, Kemari Morrison, Marquis Robinson and Clinton Riley all ran for touchdowns as the Broncos moved to 4-0. Cortez Mills also caught a touchdown pass.

▪ Jackson 44, Hialeah-Miami Lakes 0: The Generals improved to 2-2.

▪ Others: Palm Beach Christian Prep 48, Somerset Prep 0; Westminster Academy 54, West Palm Beach SLAM 8; True North 68, Florida Christian 0; Boca St. John Paul II 18, Pompano Beach 0.

This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 7:16 AM.