Monsignor Pace football dominates Gulliver Prep for first playoff victory in six years

Monsignor Pace football coach Anthony Walker Sr. wanted his team to come out and make an early statement on Friday afternoon.

Did he ever get what he wanted.

On the very first play from scrimmage, he watched his quarterback Aidan Karsh drop back and loft a perfect deep ball to wide open receiver Willie Anderson down the near sideline for an 80-yard touchdown.

Just three minutes later, Karsh and Anderson hooked up again, this time for a 15-yard score to make it 14-0 and the Spartans were on their way to an easier-than-expected 41-14 victory over Gulliver Prep in a Region 4-2M quarterfinal contest at Tropical Park.

It marked the first postseason win for Pace since 2017 and avenged a pair of first round postseason losses to Gulliver in 2018 and 2020.

But the road will get a whole lot tougher for the No. 4 seeded Spartans next week as they take on top-seeded and undefeated Miami Norland, Miami Herald’s No. 1 ranked South Florida team and the No. 1 team in the state in Class 2M. The game is likely to be played Thursday at Traz Powell Stadium at 7 p.m.

“In watching film all week, we just felt like, this play, we had been running this it the last few weeks and had had success with it,” said Walker of that opening play. “We had a feeling it might work early and figured let’s give it a shot right out of the box and there it was, it was wide open. Hitting on a play like that on the first play can have a shock on your opponent and we felt if we could get off to a fast start, we could ride it the rest of the way and that’s what we did.”

Those first two touchdowns were only the tip of the iceberg for Anderson as he went on to enjoy a huge day, along with Karsh. The two would hook up again for a third score, a 16-yarder with 8:18 left in the game to put Pace (7-4) up 34-14. It came a few minutes after Gulliver (7-4) had scored late in the third quarter on a 55-yard Brendan Beery-to-Kenny Williams touchdown to trim Pace’s lead to 28-14.

Anderson wound up with six catches for 192 yards while Karsh finished 13-of-27 for 295 yards and the three touchdowns passes to Anderson.

“It was a play we wanted to come out and try right away,” said Anderson of the opening touchdown. “Their DB bit, I got behind him, Aidan laid a great pass in there and away I went. It was a big play for us because it really kind of shocked them. Coach told us to come out and put it on them early and that’s what we did out there today.”

But despite the wide margin of victory, Walker Sr. was less than satisfied. After running back Michael Nozile bolted 23 yards for a score, the Spartans were up 28-7 and there was still 9:43 left in the second quarter. Pace continued to dominate but then fell into a lull of not being able to finish things off.

The next four Spartans possessions (the final three in the first half and first one of the second half) reached the Gulliver red zone but all four times, thanks to a missed field goal, penalties and misplays, walked away with zero points.

When Beery hit Williams for the long touchdown, the Raiders, despite being dominated most of the game, were within two touchdowns with more than a quarter to play.

After the Pace defense stopped Gulliver on its next possession, Danny Horne returned a punt 35 yards to midfield. Four plays later, Karsh hooked with Anderson on that 16-yarder and the Spartans were good from there.

Nozile finished up a big 110 yard, two touchdown day with a 54-yard scoring run with 4:32 left to wrap up the scoring.

“We started fast and then just kind of caught a lull throughout the middle of the game, not being able to finish drives and just were not able to put them away the way we should have,” Walker Sr. said. “We’ve got to learn to play all four quarters. We’ll get back to the drawing board and get ready for a big game next week.”

Ah yes, next week.

Norland is a district opponent and when the two teams met back on Sept. 14, the Vikings put a 42-7 beatdown on the Spartans.

“Yep, we’ve got a monster next week,” said Walker Sr. with a shy grin. “We know Norland has a great team so all we can do is go out and fight for four quarters and see what happens. At the end of the day, you’ve got to keep playing the game and go out and fight.”