Monsignor Pace football edges Goleman in thriller to bolster playoff seeding

Coming in as two evenly matched teams, Monsignor Pace and Goleman proved just that on Friday night as they turned in an instant classic at Milander Stadium.

When it was over, in a contest filled with dramatic, game-changing plays on both sides, it was Pace that had one more than Goleman as the Spartans pulled out a 28-27 victory in a non-district regular season finale for both teams.

That one play was turned in by the Pace defense. With a third-and-three at the Pace 21 with less than two minutes left, Goleman’s Kyjuan Taylor, taking a snap from the Wildcat formation, jumped up to try and throw a pop pass over the middle.

But as he went to throw it, the ball, perhaps slippery from some light rain minutes earlier, slipped out of his hand. Pace’s Gary Calique fell on the loose ball with 1:39 to play and the Spartans managed to grind out a first down to run out the clock.

Even though both teams are in the playoffs, the win was more important for Pace, which improved to 7-2 and is in a razor-tight dogfight with La Salle and Cardinal Gibbons for the No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds in Region 4-2A.

Goleman meanwhile, finished 6-4 and is pretty much locked in to the No. 6 seed in Region 4-7A, thanks to winning the district due to Davie Western having to forfeit its victory over the Gators giving them the District 15-7A title.

The Gators could wind up traveling to Boca Raton for a first round game.

“It wasn’t pretty but we did enough to get the victory tonight which was important given how tight things are between us, La Salle and Gibbons,” Pace coach Anthony Walker Sr. said. “But we’ll take it as we head into the playoffs.”

Walker Sr. could not have asked his team for a better start than the Spartans gave him over the first 15 minutes of the game.

Pace opened the game with a marathon, 19-play drive that ate up the first 10:09 of the clock. Wildcat quarterback Willie Anderson snuck over from a yard out on fourth-and-goal to cap off the drive.

One play later, on Goleman’s first play from scrimmage, Daveon Black jumped an out rout and picked off quarterback Timothy Potts, trotting 25 yards for the easy pick-six and a 13-0 Pace lead. After a Goleman three-and-out, the Spartans got the ball at midfield and soon after, quarterback Sean Ponder found Anderson on a flanker screen that Anderson turned into a 27-yard catch-and-run score.

With 8:44 left in the second, Pace led 20-0 and perhaps had designs of a blowout win.

No chance.

By halftime, the Spartans were officially in a dogfight as Goleman scored three touchdowns in the final eight minutes of the half and the teams went to the locker room tied at 20.

A 55-yard touchdown pass from Potts to Christian Rust followed by an 8-yard scoring run by Taylor and finally a 27-yard touchdown pass from Potts to Taylor on a throwback screen 1:20 before halftime is what tied the game as stunned Pace players trudged toward the locker room.

The Gators kept their foot on the pedal when they put together another long drive on their second possession of the third quarter and found paydirt when Potts tossed a beautifully thrown fade pass to the corner to Malik Meza for a 25-yard touchdown.

When they had to find a way to get the momentum back, the Spartans, ranked No. 16 in the Miami Herald’s Top 20 poll, did just that, responding with a clutch drive of their own, marching 72 yards in eight plays.

On third down from the Goleman 11, Ponder escaped around the right side and, in spectacular fashion, leaped over a Gator defender and into the end zone for the score with 3:56 left in the third.

It didn’t seem like a huge thing at the moment but when Walker Sr. opted to go for two, it worked as Ponder found Cleveland Gary III open in the corner of the end zone for the deuce and what turned out to be the winning points.

Goleman’s last drive began at its own 8-yard-line with 4:58 left and it was thanks to a pair spectacular catches by receivers Adrian Atoa (37 yards) and Rust (30 yards) that allowed the Gators to reach the Pace 28.

This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 7:58 AM.