West Broward pulls away from Monarch, secures rematch with Southridge

A year after making a first-ever appearance in the regional finals, only to be embarrassed in a lopsided loss on the road to Miami Southridge, the Pembroke Pines West Broward football team is going to get a crack at redemption.

The No. 2 seeded Bobcats found themselves in a real dogfight for two-and-half quarters with No. 3 Coconut Creek Monarch on Friday night. But in the end, they were able to come up with three fourth quarter touchdowns to pull away to an easy 38-12 victory in a Region 4-6A semifinal at Cypress Bay High School in Weston.

With Southridge taking care of its own business, routing Sunrise Piper 42-6 in the opposite semifinal, the stage is set for a much-anticipated rematch between the two teams next Friday, once again at Southridge Park at 7:30 p.m.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to make sure our darn buses are at the school really early this time and that we don’t have any issues getting down there,” West Broward coach Brian McCartney with a wry smile.

It was a year ago that the Bobcats dealt with buses arriving late at the school to get them to the game and only made worse by a major accident on the turnpike. The start of the game was delayed, and the players had all of 15 minutes to warm up. Predictably, the first quarter was a disaster as West Broward fell way behind early in what turned out to be a 51-21 loss.

“Our boys are hungry and ready,” McCartney said. “We’ve been waiting for this shot since last year. Southridge took it to us really good, and they’re still a great football team and the team to beat in our region. We committed way too many penalties tonight and if we do that again next week against a great team like that, the result will be the same as last year. We’ll need to stay clean.”

When McCartney asked how many penalties his team had committed Friday night and was told 15 (for 145 yards) he was ready with an answer.

“They’ll be out there doing 15 110s (sprints) on Monday and Tuesday” he said. “That’ll remind them of tonight.”

For the first two-plus quarters on Friday night, the Bobcats, who won their 10th in a row to improve to 10-2 (after opening the season with two losses to out-of-state teams), weren’t sure they’d even have practice on Monday.

That’s because Monarch was looking like a team ready to spring a mild upset.

Trailing 17-6 late in the first half, the Knights (7-5) drove 80 yards in nine plays to score 28 seconds before halftime on a six-yard touchdown pass from Tino Lopez to Jaboree Riggins to make it 17-12 at the break after a two-point conversion failed.

But what had McCartney seething and which led to quite a tongue-lashing to his kids at halftime was that 50 of Monarch’s 80 yards were by penalty (two pass interference calls, a face mask and an offside) giving the Bobcats a dozen flags for 110 yards at the half.

When Keshawn Paschall returned the second half kickoff 60 yards, the Knights were set up at the West Broward 25. Two plays later, they had first and goal at the nine and were poised to go in and take the lead.

Three plays after that came the biggest play of the night. On fourth-and-goal at the 6, Lopez dropped back and had Jabari Brady wide open in the back of the end zone on a slant pattern. But the ball was thrown slightly behind him and Brady couldn’t handle it giving the ball back to West Broward.

“A big moment in the game for sure,” McCartney said. “If they go in right there and take the lead, who knows how this whole thing would’ve played out.”

McCartney then watched his pride and joy, his powerful offensive line take over the game as they paved the way for running back Daquon Adderly. Adderly had just 50 yards on 10 carries at halftime. But by the time the game was over, he had racked up 176 yards on 23 attempts.

Late in the third quarter, he led his offense downfield on a 71 yard, eight play drive in which he had consecutive runs of 10, 25, 11 and 8 yards before quarterback Brandon Mincy found freshman wide receiver Kedarius Rhaney for a 10-yard touchdown pass on third and goal to put West Broward up 24-12 with 11:08 left in the game.

It was Rhaney’s second touchdown of the night. The first one came midway through the second quarter and was worthy of an ESPN highlight clip.

After back-to-back holding penalties pushed the Bobcats back to the Monarch 29, Rhaney came wide open down the middle in the end zone. But Mincy appeared to have led him too far with the throw. That’s when Rhaney, nicknamed K-4, stretched out horizontally and reeled the ball in with one hand, managing to secure it when he hit the ground for a spectacular touchdown and 17-6 West Broward lead.

“When I saw the ball coming I knew he had led me just a little too much so I knew I was just going to have to lay out for it and reach out as far as I could,” Rhaney said. “Fortunately I was able to bring it in with my one hand and not let the ball hit the ground. Just trying to make a play and help my team.”

With the game still up in the air following Rhaney’s second score, Lopez led Monarch back downfield to the West Broward 18 before Zaccari Isaac picked off his pass and returned it 40 yards to midfield with 7:36 left.

Eight plays later, Adderly, who carried for runs of 18, 12, 7 and 6 yards on the drive, finished it off by scoring from 3 yards out with 3:41 left to make it 31-12. Mekhi James picked off another Lopez pass on the next possession and returned it 70 yards to the Monarch one before Izaiah Lopez scored on the next play to complete the scoring.

“It was a dogfight for awhile but we talked at halftime and we knew this team couldn’t hang with us,” said Adderly. “We were going to go out there and take what was ours and that’s what we did. All the credit to my o-line. If they’re not out there clearing things out for me, I go nowhere tonight.”