Dillard secures meaningful win over Plantation to build momentum for possible playoff run

Plantation’s final pass fell incomplete, the crowd at Otis Gray Jr. Memorial Stadium roared and Dillard’s bench poured onto the field.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell this was just a regular season game without any district implications and the Panthers just struggling to get back to .500.

The 28-26 win over Plantation in Fort Lauderdale was important to Dillard.

“We lost a lot of kids over to Plantation with the coaching change,” said first-year Panthers coach Demetris Mincey, who was the junior varsity coach last season. “That was personal for us. Even if it took to the last second, I knew they were going to give it everything they had.”

Dillard (3-3) came 17 yards away from blowing a 28-18 lead to the Colonels in the final six minutes, and then Panthers edge rusher Percy Frederick sacked JT Tabora on third down and hurried the Plantation quarterback on fourth down to force a final errant throw to no one with six seconds left. Dillard escaped with a win despite racking up 19 penalties for 165 yards and failing to score for the final 22:15.

The Panthers, in their first year with a new coach and already with as many losses as they’ve had in a single season since 2017, snatched some badly needed momentum with back-to-back district games coming in the next two weeks.

“We’re 2-3,” Mincey said. “We needed to get back to .500.”

As ugly as it often was and as nerve-wracking wound up being for Dillard in the final seconds, the Panthers led for all but 5:18 and led by two scores for nearly the entire second half.

For a half and change, Nylan Maine carved up Plantation’s defense. The Dillard quarterback, who spent the last three seasons playing junior varsity for Mincey, threw touchdowns to three different wide receivers in the first half -- first to Toledo commit Edward Louis, then to senior Brandon Pridgen and finally to FCS Western Carolina commit Marcus Striggles -- and then ran for another with 10:15 left in the third quarter to put the Panthers up 20-18.

The Dillard quarterback was already up to 255 passing yards by the time the Panthers built their two-score second-half lead and Maine finished 24 of 43 for 326 yards, with the four total touchdowns.

Louis had nine catches for 111 yards, Pridgen had six for 100 and Striggles had five for 69.

“We knew we had to go out there and score fast,” Maine said. “We kept that momentum going.”

The lead Dillard built was enough, but just barely.

Tabora, who was the Panthers’ backup quarterback last year before transferring across the county to join the Colonels, went toe to toe with Maine, going 24 of 42 for 314 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and adding 31 rushing yards on 11 carries. The senior linked up with Brian Lane for a touchdown with 3:44 left in the second quarter and then with fellow Plantation wide receiver Kaleb Flores for another with 53 seconds left in the half to send the Colonels (6-2) into halftime down just 21-18.

Lane had 62 yards on just two receptions and Flores added three catches for 54 yards.

In the final minutes, Tabora nearly led a comeback. He marched the Colonels 80 yards on 10 plays, converting a pair of fourth downs, to set up Plantation running back Jordan Reed for his second touchdown with 5:44 remaining to trim Dillard’s lead to 28-26, and then got the Colonels into the red zone again on their final possession before falling short.

“We never gave up,” said Frederick, who also intercepted Tabora in the second quarter. “Football is four quarters, but we train for six.”