Monarch regroups, upends previously unbeaten Piper for third consecutive district title

Sunrise Piper’s hopes of an undefeated season and a District 13-6A title fizzled out Thursday night.

Monarch High’s state championship dreams? They’re not only alive, but more realistic than ever.

Both Broward teams will almost certainly be playing in the FHSAA playoffs, but the Knights will go in as the higher seed after surviving the dogged Bengals 22-20 at home Thursday night.

With the win, Monarch (5-3, 3-0 in District 13-6A) clinched a district championship for the third consecutive year.

“It hasn’t sunk in because that one was so difficult, so hard,” said Monarch coach Calvin Davis, who kept his team together after back-to-back lopsided losses to Chaminade-Madonna and St. Thomas Aquinas.

“That’s probably been the toughest one yet, but we’re excited about having an opportunity to win a district championship and then just have an opportunity to go to the playoffs. That’s what you play for. That’s what you practice all off season and summer for.”

Piper has put in just as much work. And the Bengals have plenty of football still ahead of them, as Thursday’s loss was their first in eight games this year.

Piper closes out district play against Fort Lauderdale Monday in a makeup game, but win or lose the striped cats will be playing in November.

Piper was the 13th-ranked 6A team in the state entering Sunday’s game. And the Bengals had a real chance to win and vault even higher Thursday, even though they gave up seemingly four inches and 20 pounds at every position on the field.

At yet, Piper was down two in the latter stages of the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. But Monarch’s Jabari Brady burst through the line to block a 34-yard field goal attempt by Carter McCrary on fourth and 6.

“He can make that,” said Piper coach Quentin Short of McCrary. “But we didn’t block a soul. They shot right through there. I’m real confident he would put that through.”

Brady’s field goal block preserved a second-half shutout for a defense was mostly solid all evening.

The game’s final lead change came midway through the third quarter, when one of the best players on the field made one of the best plays you’ll see at the high school level.

Tulane commit Antwaun Parham caught a short dump-off pass from Jack Spaeder, turned the corner and then turned on the jets, outrunning the entire Piper defense for a 70-yard score.

“They got a great program, they got great players,” Short said. “They got like a doggone college team. They’re huge, athletes all over the place. We battled them and we came up short tonight. It happens, but no one’s happy about it.”

Monarch did indeed have the bigger, stronger, faster players. But Piper, the more disciplined an opportunistic team, found ways to keep it close.

All three Piper touchdowns in the first half came off Monarch turnovers.

First running back Julien Halley scored on a one-yard plunge after a Knights fumble.

Then linebacker Kenneth Pierre picked off a deflected pass thrown by Florentino Lopez and returned it to the house.

And just before the half, Piper took the lead after yet another fumble by Monarch set up a 14-yard hookup between Christian Mata and Alex Gammage.

Monarch’s first half touchdowns came on two long runs -- a 22-yard keeper by Lopez and a 51-yard sprint by Ole Miss commit Samari Reed on a Wildcat direct snap.

“That’s what they’re here for,” Davis said of Parham and Reed. “Those guys are big-time players. We expect them to make big-time plays, and they came through when we needed them the most. We ask a lot of those guys and they did what we needed them to do.”

With the state tournament looming, the demands on both teams are just beginning.