Palmetto erases 16-point, second-half deficit against South Dade to win district title
Palmetto had a decision to make with a little more than three seconds left and the District 16-8A title on the line. The Panthers were at South Dade’s 3-yard line and facing a fourth down after the Buccaneers coughed away the ball on a kickoff. Palmetto wasn’t sure whether it should trust its kicker to erase the three-point deficit or if it should send out its offense to go for a potential win.
Mike Manasco sent his offense out once, then took a timeout. The Panthers talked over the situation and then the coach made the decision he always planned on making. Palmetto trotted out to the offense again to go for the lead at Harris Field Park in Homestead.
Kevin Smith needed to buy some time, so he rolled to his left as the Buccaneers’ defense tried not to break. Bob Golden found a soft spot in the middle of the end zone, though, and Smith found him. As he drifted to his right, the quarterback drilled a pass to his wide receiver. The Panthers won 46-42 to take the district title and, almost certainly, the No. 1 seed in Region 4-8A after trailing by 16 early in the third quarter.
Palmetto (8-1) will now likely get to host all the way through the region playoffs. South Dade (7-2) will have to settle for a wild-card berth as the No. 5 seed in the region after a final drive fell short of the end zone.
The game, which lasted nearly four hours, didn’t follow the obvious template for a meeting between these two Miami-Dade County powerhouses. The Panthers had only allowed 52 points all year and had pitched three straight shutouts entering Thursday. The Buccaneers held their opponents to 14 points or fewer in six of their first eight games.
In the first 15 minutes, the two defensive juggernauts combined to score six touchdowns.
For six drives, Palmetto and South Dade traded touchdown drives against two of the best defenses in South Florida. Panthers running back Brashard Smith ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown, then Buccaneers quarterback Kelvin Durham gave South Dade a 7-6 lead with a touchdown run to cap an 11-play scoring drive at the 6:25 mark. The Panthers answered six plays later with a touchdown pass from quarterback Kevin Smith to Brashard Smith, and the Buccaneers answered them in six plays when running back Chezzy Mathews broke off a 19-yard touchdown run to retake a 14-12 lead.
Two more lead changes came in the first three minutes of the second quarter, first on a touchdown pass from Kevin Smith to wide receiver Kentron Poitier with 10:30 left and then when Durham ran for his second touchdown of the game with 9:23 remaining to put South Dade ahead 21-19.
In the final nine minutes of the half, the game finally flipped from a shootout to the more logical defensive struggle. The Buccaneers forced a three-and-out and the first punt of the game with 8:07 left in the half, then immediately went three-and-out against the Panthers. Palmetto’s next drive ended with a turnover on downs when defensive end Tyler Johnson, orally committed to the Miami Hurricanes for the Class of 2021, sacked Kevin Smith deep in South Dade territory.
The Buccaneers couldn’t take advantage. South Dade moved across midfield, then Durham was intercepted when his pass was batted at the line of scrimmaged, bounced off a player’s helmet and found its way into defensive tackle Leonard Taylor’s hands. Two plays after Durham’s interception, Poitier fumbled the ball away and Durham immediately threw an interception when the Buccaneers took back over.
A long return set up the Panthers in South Dade territory and Palmetto tried to fool the defense with a throwback in the final seconds.
Jalin Wilson read it the whole way. The safety jumped the pass and raced 80 yards to the end zone to take a 27-19 lead into halftime after a first half lasting nearly two hours. Penalties easily numbered in the double digits and Jaiden Francois, South Dade’s star defensive back, was ejected because a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was erroneously issued to him instead of Mathews.
They traded offensive barbs into the second half, too. The Buccaneers and Panthers traded touchdowns, and then South Dade was stopped. Palmetto scored again and so did the Buccaneers, but South Dade could never stop the Panthers. Palmetto scored on all four of its second-half drives.
With 4:05 to go, Kevin Smith found athlete Mike Jackson for a 5-yard touchdown pass and the Buccaneers’ lead shrunk all the way to 42-39.
The chance for a game-icing drive never materialized, though. A bouncing kickoff found its way into Mathews’ hands and the tailback coughed the ball away near the goal line. Referees conferred for minutes before finally spotting the ball at the 1-yard line for Palmetto.
The Panthers got pushed back twice, then threw an incomplete pass before Smith made the game-winning throw.
