Sophomore defensive back turned quarterback sparks Plantation win over McCarthy

With super sophomore Zakari Johnson now at quarterback, Plantation football now has a dangerous offense to pair with its excellent defense.

And that should worry every team the Colonels might face in the Class 4A playoffs -- assuming they get there.

Plantation took a huge step towards locking up a postseason spot Friday night, going on the road to upset Archbishop McCarthy for a thrilling 28-27 victory on the Mavericks’ homecoming night.

Johnson -- who began the season as a defensive back but has excelled at quarterback after cascading injuries at that position -- ran for two touchdowns and threw for another to kick off a four-week sprint to the end of the regular season.

If the Colonels win out -- and get some help next week from McCarthy against a banged up American Heritage team -- they not only will make the playoffs, but could potentially do so as District 15-4A champions. A McCarthy win next weekend paired with a Plantation victory over Norland in two weeks would create a three-way tie atop the district standings, with FHSAA rankings deciding the champion.

“We’ve got a chance to win the district,” said Plantation coach Darrell Strong, whose team improved to 4-3 on the season, including 1-1 in league play. “We’re rooting for them to beat Heritage next week.”

At this point, it’s hard to see the Colonels missing the playoffs even as an at-large team.

They put together a kind of effort Friday that should be a real building block.

The Colonels rallied from a two-score fourth-quarter deficit with touchdowns on their last two possessions. But it wasn’t until Plantation defensive back Marlin Johnson recovered a fumble by Elijah Blanc that Jemari Foreman forced in the game’s final moments was the outcome no longer in doubt.

“They should never have been disrespecting us like that,” Johnson said. “They took us for granted because of how young we are. We had to come out and show them who we are. We did that tonight.”

Archbishop McCarthy controlled much of the first half but Plantation led at the break thanks to four big plays:

A 62-yard, tackle-shedding touchdown run down the right sidelines by Johnson.

An 88-yard kickoff return by Johnson that would have gone for a touchdown had he not run out of gas.

A would-be scoop-and-score by the Mavericks on the next play that was ruled an out-of-bounds recovery, which ended up being a 14-point swing. (Zachariah Ray, who coughed up the ball on first-and-goal, scored from 14 yards out on the very next play).

And a blocked McCarthy extra point attempt with less 10 seconds left in the second quarter.

Those big plays negated a more-than-solid solid first half by Mavericks quarterback Robert Kerns, who connected with fellow senior Kendall Brown on touchdown passes of 28 and 10 yards. The classmates also hooked up for a 43-yard gain on McCarthy’s final drive of the first half.

The Mavericks carried that momentum through the break, turning a halftime deficit into a 13-point lead late in the third quarter thanks to touchdown runs by Damien Grant (13 yards) and Jeremiah Alexandre (12).

But instead folding, Plantation stormed the whole way back.

The Colonels responded immediately after going down two scores with a six-play, 83-yard touchdown drive -- capped by Johnson’s second score of the night -- that took less than three minutes off the clock.

And after a defensive stop plus a drive-extending roughing the passer call against the Mavericks (5-2, 1-1), Johnson found Zachariah Ray on a perfectly-time screen pass that the Colonels back took 36 yards to the end zone to put Plantation ahead for good.

“He got it going,” Strong said. “We always knew he could play quarterback, but we thought we needed him at DB. Our situation changed because we had three quarterbacks go down. It was kind of forced to put ‘Kari at quarterback. We’re going to see what we can do from here.”