Henry Parrish runs wild and Columbus beats Coral Gables to win district title
It has been an up-and-down, choppy season for Columbus and Friday night’s matchup with Coral Gables, with the District 15-8A title on the line, was a microcosm of it.
The Explorers did a lot of good things and then some not so good stuff, but, in the end, Columbus did more than enough to come through with a 42-26 victory over the Cavaliers at Tropical Park. The win moved the Explorers to 5-4 overall and 2-0 in district play, clinching the district title and no worse than a No. 4 seed in the upcoming playoffs.
“A lot of good and a lot of bad for sure tonight, but through it all we’re happy about the win and winning the district title,” Columbus coach David Dunn said. “We fully understand that there were a lot of things tonight we need to get cleaned up, including way too many penalties and played some very undisciplined football at times that will need to get addressed.”
Columbus finished the night with a whopping 17 penalties for 165 yards, but also didn’t turn the ball over.
In his first start, quarterback Fernando Mendoza was efficient, going 11 of 16 with 84 yards and three touchdowns . He threw short passes without being picked off, but, without a doubt, the main catalyst for the Explorers was four star running back Henry Parrish.
Parrish ran over, through and around Gables defenders all night, finishing his night with 273 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns.
“I’m a senior and this was my last home game as a senior, so I just wanted to step up and do whatever was necessary to carry my team to victory tonight,” said Parrish, who is orally committed to the Pittsburgh Panthers, but has other visits scheduled, including one with the USC Trojans. “It feels good to be district champs and be in the playoff,s but we understand that we have a lot of things to clean up.”
After Columbus took a 14-7 lead to the halftime locker room, the two teams exploded for four touchdowns — two apiece in the first four minutes of the second half.
After Gables’ Maurice Jones returned the second half kickoff 92 yards for a score, Columbus came right back on the next play when Parrish took a direct snap and bolted 70 yards for a score to make it 21-13.
After the Cavaliers answered back quickly with a three-play, 53-yard drive to cut it to two following a missed two point conversion, Parrish answered right back carrying the ball four straight times for 41 yards before Mendoza found Xzavier Henderson for a 15-yard score to bring the lead back to nine.
Leading 35-19, Columbus slam dunked the game when Henderson, playing defensive pick, jumped a pass pattern and picked off a pass returning it 45 yards for a score with 9:32 left in the game.
“Every once in awhile Henry will do something that you yell at him about, but 95 percent of the time he’ll make cuts that nobody else can make and you’ll just deal with that 5 percent,” Dunn said. “That’s Henry Parrish, the good far outweighs the not so good and that was on display out there tonight.”
Gables, currently the No. 7 seed in Region 4-8A, fell to 3-6. Despite the rough season, if the Cavs can handle Southwest next week, they’ll find themselves in the playoffs.
