Led by ‘unflappable’ new QB, Cardinal Gibbons rides comebacks back to state title game
When Cardinal Gibbons trailed by 11 in the second quarter of the Class 4A semifinals on Dec. 3rd, it felt — relatively speaking — like nothing.
A week earlier, the Chiefs were down by 19 in the second half against Gulliver Prep and stormed back to win Region 4-4A in Miami, so Dylan Rizk and Co. had St. Petersburg Lakewood right where they wanted them.
“He’s very unflappable,” coach Matt DuBuc said.
Cardinal Gibbons scored in the last minute of the first half to cut Lakewood’s lead to five, then they scored twice more in the first 10 minutes of the second half — including once on a fake punt — to take the lead for good, eventually pulling away for a 36-18 win at Dr. Bud Tight Field.
It has the Chiefs (10-2) riding a wave of momentum into the 4A championship Thursday at DRV PNK Stadium. They’ll have a chance to hoist a state championship trophy for the second straight season — and the third time in four years — when they face Cocoa at 7 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale.
The foundation of this team is similar to their past title-winning teams, even if the faces are different. Cardinal Gibbons still has one of the best offensive lines in South Florida and, defensively, as good a front seven as there is in the state. The Chiefs average 336.4 yards per game, and have piled up 24 sacks and 55 tackles for loss.
“Everything else,” DuBuc said, “is kind of morphing around that.”
The most glaring difference is at the quarterback position.
In 2018, Brody Palhegyi took over at quarterback in the middle of Cardinal Gibbons’ playoff run when Nik Scalzo, who went on to play for the Kentucky Wildcats, hurt his knee. The one-time backup led Cardinal Gibbons to its first state title in 2018, then guided the Chiefs to their second last year before graduating.
Rizk, a junior, transferred to Cardinal Gibbons from Delray Beach American Heritage earlier this year to fill the void at the Chiefs’ long-stable quarterback position. Aside from an October stretch when Cardinal Gibbons lost two of three games with the losses coming against Plantation American Heritage and St. Thomas Aquinas, Rizk has given the Chiefs what they’ve needed.
“It’s definitely been an honor,” the star quarterback said. “[DuBuc] gave me the key to the program.”
Rizk has gone 164 of 240 for 1,933 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and run for 437 yards and eight touchdowns on 55 carries, with two fumbles lost, this year.
Six of those turnovers, however, happened in his first five games and the other four all came against Gulliver last month.
Rizk was unshakable against the Raiders, though, and led Cardinal Gibbons to a win on a touchdown run with 1:16 remaining, even after he threw a pair of fourth-quarter picks at Tropical Park. Rizk finished with 249 passing yards and a touchdown, and 111 rushing yards and three touchdown runs against Gulliver. A week later, he threw for 123 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 55 yards and another in the state semifinals.
No matter how the Chiefs’ game against the Tigers (11-1) unfolds, Rizk has proved he can win.
“It hasn’t been seamless. There’s always work to be done. There’s always nuances of the position,” DuBuc said.
The coach likes to praise Palhegyi as a great “game manager” and it’s what Cardinal Gibbons — with perennial depth in the trenches on both sides of the ball — typically needs.
Rizk came to Fort Lauderdale with a track record as a gunslinger after throwing for 2,075 yards and 17 touchdowns in just eight games last year in Delray Beach.
The Chiefs have never needed anything quite like that from their quarterback, although it’s nice to have when they find themselves in a shootout like they did in the region championship.
In the end, they’re still looking for performances like the one he had in the 4A semis, though: 150 or so passing yards, a couple clutch runs and a few timely touchdown passes, and teammates put in position to succeed.
“That’s a very important part of playing the position,” DuBuc said, “and I think Dylan has done a good job acquiring that throughout the year.”
