Columbus rallies in 2nd half to win rubber match vs. rival Palmetto, return to 8A semis
Columbus and Palmetto set a standard this year for what a meeting between the two district rivals should look like. They played twice in the regular season and each team won once, with the two games decided by a total of seven point.
On Friday, the rivalry almost made Miami-Dade County history: The Explorers and Panthers met for a third time in the Region 4-Class 8A championship. No one can ever remember two teams playing three times in the same season and certainly not with a trip to the state semifinals on the line, but what better way to figure out who would represent South Florida in the 8A semifinals than a rubber match in Homestead?
The third meeting played out a lot like those first two. Points were hard to come by, turnovers played a massive role and one second-half play ultimately helped decide a one-possession game. For the second straight meeting, Columbus came through late to beat Palmetto, 22-14, at Orange Bowl Field at Harris Field Park.
“We knew they were a good team,” Denim Edwards said. “We just knew we had to punch them in the mouth.”
The Explorers running back scored the go-ahead touchdown with 5:02 left in the third quarter to put Columbus (9-3) ahead 19-14 and the Explorers never trailed again. Edwards punched in a 1-yard touchdown after running five times for 68 yards on the drive, including a 28-yard run on third-and-14, and then the Panthers (9-3) went three-and-out two times with one interception and one turnover on downs on their final five drives.
After getting beaten for two long touchdowns in the first half, Columbus held Palmetto to just 38 yards in the second half and rode Edwards, who finished with 28 carries for 130 yards and a touchdown, to victory.
The Explorers are now just two wins away from winning a second state title in three years and will go on the road to face Venice next Friday. Last year, they didn’t compete in the Florida High School Athletic Association’s state series because of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead playing in the tri-county tournament and winning.
“We’re a dynasty,” Edwards said. “We’ve got to keep punching it for the alumni.”
Columbus was still down 14-12 when it faced a third-and-14 at the Panthers’ 39-yard line in the second quarter. The Explorers hadn’t done much on offense since marching down the field with a 14-play, 78-yard touchdown drive on the first possession and this was their first time across midfield in the second half. Columbus coach Dave Dunn figured he had two chances to pick up the first down.
Edwards, as Dunn put, “made me look smart.”
The senior ran up the middle and into a mess of Panthers. Somehow, he slipped out of a tackle and dragged defenders down to the 11. Two plays later, Edwards ran in the go-ahead score.
“I told coach before the play, I said, ‘They cannot stop me.’ I kept hitting them in the mouth, kept hitting them in the mouth. The linebackers and the D-line was getting tired in the trenches. They didn’t want anymore of that weight we had, so I told him, ‘Coach, keep handing it to me. Keep feeding me, keep feeding me.’ That’s what we did.
“I was in the zone. They couldn’t stop me. Like I said before, they couldn’t stop me during that drive, so I told Coach, Keep feeding me.”
Columbus then forced Palmetto into a three-and-out, blocked a punt for the second time to get a short field and stretched the lead to 22-14 on a chip-shot field goal with 57 seconds left in the third.
Other than the two first-half touchdowns, the Explorers’ defense was its typical self. Columbus sacked star quarterback Kevin Smith three times and intercepted once, and got a safety on a blocked punt in the first half to keep within striking distance.
Smith finished 27 of 44 for 296 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, but the senior was only 11 of 19 for 38 yards and one interception in the second half.
Smith’s two touchdowns both came on plays longer than 35 yards. On the first, he hit star wide receiver Mike Jackson for a 37-yard score on a post route to tie the game 7-7. On the second, he launched another long pass to Panthers athlete Jai-Ayviauynn Celestine for a 62-yard touchdown to go up 14-12 with 20 seconds left in the first half.
Celestine finished with 10 catches for 135 yards and Jackson, who orally committed to the Appalachian State Mountaineers earlier Friday, had six for 71. Dunn called them “the two best players we’ve seen all year” and the threat of their big-play ability gave Palmetto a chance all the way until Smith’s final pass fell incomplete on fourth down with a little more than two minutes to go.
In their first meeting when the two played for a district championship in September, the Panthers won when Jackson intercepted Explorers quarterback Fernando Mendoza in the end zone on the final play. When they rematched for the Greater Miami Athletic Conference championship in October, Columbus got revenge with a field goal in the final five minutes.
In the rubber match, the Explorers again came through late and now their long-delayed state-title defense is still alive.
This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 11:18 PM.
