La Salle football caps bounce back regular season with impressive win over Ransom
There’s been a transformation in recent years on the Immaculata-La Salle football team.
It’s not just the facilities that have improved with a new state-of-the-art athletic center and renovations to their on-campus football stadium.
The Royal Lions themselves have rebuilt themselves into one of the better programs in Miami-Dade County.
After a pair of losing seasons that followed a breakout 10-1 season, La Salle is back among the top teams in Class 2A and capped a 9-1 regular season with a 43-31 victory over visiting Miami Ransom Everglades on Thursday night.
“We started this journey in January and through the ups and downs of a program, we came through at the right time,” La Salle coach Helder Valle said. “The guys clicked so well in the summer and we knew this year would be special. We figured if we stayed healthy we could make a good run.”
The Royal Lions entered the week as the No. 2 seed in Region 4-2A with their only loss coming against the region’s top seed, Miami Booker T. Washington.
Thursday’s win likely solidified that spot as now La Salle waits to find out who it will play in the first round of the playoffs next week. As of last week, Gulliver Prep was the No. 7 seed. Such a matchup would force La Salle to travel to Gulliver since it is a district champion and the Royal Lions were a district runner-up to Booker T.
“It’s a great mark to be 9-1, but now everyone is 0-0,” Valle said. “I feel like we’re going to be a good team to be reckoned with for years to come.”
Facing playoff-bound Ransom (6-3), which entered the week as the No. 6 seed in the region and projected to play No. 3 seed Miami Monsignor Pace in round 1, the Royal Lions knew they would need outstanding play from all three phases of their team.
They got it from the big playmakers that have carried them through this comeback season.
It started with special teams as sophomore Tyrone Williams III slipped away from multiple tacklers on the game’s opening kickoff and returned it 73 yards for a touchdown.
Senior Terrance Smith Jr. ran for over 100 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 touches. His 62-yard breakaway run down the sideline with 9:42 left in the fourth helped La Salle break the game open and take a 35-24 lead. Smith Jr. also caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Dorian Mallary in the third quarter.
Mallary completed 9 of 15 passes for 160 yards, two touchdowns and one interception while rushing for 54 yards and a touchdown.
Junior wide receiver Brandon Kinsey, a transfer from Northwestern, drew plenty of attention from Ransom’s defense, but managed three catches for 21 yards and a key touchdown grab before halftime followed by a two-point conversion reception which tied the game at 21.
The Royal Lions defense had its hands full early on with Ransom freshman quarterback Neimann Lawrence, who is one of the top prospects in the nation for the class of 2028.
Lawrence completed 16 of 24 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for a touchdown in the first half.
But La Salle’s defense amped up the pass rush in the second half and sacked Lawrence three times led by sophomores Phillip Jones Jr. and Raul Alvarez and senior Henry Jean-Simeon.
“We’ve been down so much that no one panics and no one freaks out,” Valle said. “Having that grit in tight ball games puts us in it to win it and I feel like we have everything necessary to make a run. That’s the best QB in Dade County and one of the best we’ve ever faced. It’s a good test for us and we continue to grow from there.”
▪ Somerset Academy 62, Pompano Beach 0: The beneficiary of Miami Central having to forfeit its season due to an ineligible player, Somerset Academy took maximum advantage of the opportunity on Thursday night when the Panthers crushed Pompano Beach in a District 15-3A matchup at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar.
Somerset (7-3, 3-0 in district), which lost to Central 41-7 on the field a few weeks ago only to have the result overturned on the forfeit, clinched its first-ever district championship and will move on to the state playoffs next week as the No. 3 seed in Region 4-3A. The Panthers will host Fort Myers Cypress Lake at Ansin Sports Complex on Friday, Nov. 15.
Somerset left little doubt early on that the contest would not be close. Following a Pompano turnover, the Panthers scored on their first play from scrimmage when running back Antonio Wright bolted 20 yards for a score and quick 7-0 lead. That was followed by a Jeremiah Baptiste 4-yard score with 4:08 left in the first before the Panthers basically put the game away in the final two minutes of the first quarter.
First was a dazzling 74-yard punt return by Amare Nugent who changed direction four different times and, following a Somerset interception on Pompano’s next play, quarterback Kayne Garbutt found Nugent for a six-yard touchdown pass.
It was 28-0 after the first quarter and three more touchdown passes later by Garbutt in the second quarter, it was 48-0 at the half and a running clock in the second half. Pompano Beach finished its season 3-7.
BILL DALEY
This story was originally published November 8, 2024 at 10:03 AM.
