Led by its quarterback, Plantation uses big second half to beat Piper for district title
The celebration was subdued, but the moment wasn’t lost on Plantation coach Steve Davis.
With Plantation’s 42-15 win over Piper on Friday in Sunrise, Davis’ Colonels clinched the District 12-3M title — the team’s first district championship since 2018.
It was the first step toward their grander goal, as the Colonels hope to build on last season’s regional final run.
“The first thing you have to do before you start thinking about the playoffs is secure yourself a playoff berth,” Davis said. “That’s what the guys did. They worked extremely hard this week. I’m proud of them.”
Senior quarterback Amer Ellis did most of the heavy lifting on offense, throwing for three touchdown passes and adding another on the ground.
Ellis’ 59-yard rushing touchdown down the left sideline gave Plantation (7-2) a 13-7 lead at halftime. He then fired off three second-half touchdown passes — of 52 yards to senior Jamari Haynes, 40 yards to senior Dakotah Johnson and 25 yards to junior Brian Lane — to cap his stellar night.
“I had to lock in,” Ellis said. “Everything opened up [in the second half].”
Piper (5-4) took an early 7-0 lead on a 17-play, 96-yard opening drive capped by an 11-yard touchdown run from Malik Kesley.
But the Bengals found the end zone just one more time midway through the third quarter to cut their deficit to 19-15 before Plantation scored 23 unanswered points to end the game.
Davis called the Piper’s first drive in particular and the first half overall a “gut check” and told his players at halftime to that they needed to play harder in the second half.
“Piper wants it. This is a district championship game,” Davis said. “We understood that we had to come out in the second half and play with more intensity. We did that.”
And now Plantation has put itself in good position to host at least in the first round of the playoffs. The FHSAA this year is seeding teams for regionals by their power rankings. Getting a district title alone isn’t enough to guarantee home field advantage in the first round.
The Colonels entered Friday ranked as the No. 67 overall team in the FHSAA power rankings and fourth in Region 3-3M behind Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (No. 3), Fort Lauderdale Dillard (No. 21) and Pompano Beach Blanche Ely (No. 26). Delray Beach Atlantic is fifth at No. 75.
Atlantic (District 9-3M), Ely (District 10-3M) and Aquinas (District 11-3M) won their districts.
Plantation caps its regular season next Friday at Davie Western.
Piper, meanwhile, entered the week just outside the playoff field as the No. 9 team in Region 3-3M behind the Fort Lauderdale Flying L’s (Fort Lauderdale was No. 188 in state rankings; Piper was No. 194). Friday was Piper’s final game of the regular season. Fort Lauderdale lost 34-29 to Cypress Bay on Friday and closes its season against Stranahan next week.
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