Goleman football ends over two-decade playoff win drought by edging South Dade

Nothing like making a little history.

The Goleman football team felt what that was like Saturday night, ending a drought of more than two decades without having won a postseason game.

Led by quarterback Timothy Potts, wide receiver Adrian Atoa and two-way athletes Darryl Bell III and Keny Belamour Jr., the Gators won a thriller over South Dade 30-28 in a Region 4-7A quarterfinal contest at Traz Powell Stadium.

It marked only the second-ever postseason win for the Gators, who recorded a 31-28 first round victory over Miami High in 2004, and are off to the regional semifinals again. Goleman (7-4), the No. 3 seed, will travel north to Boca Raton next Friday to take on No. 2 Spanish River.

“Just a huge night for this program and this school,” Goleman coach Ariel Cribeiro, who played football at the school, was an assistant coach on that 2004 staff and is now completing his 13th year since taking over the program. “We had some big wins when we played in the Independent Conference for a few years but that pales in comparison to actually winning a state playoff game and advancing.

“Tonight was a very emotional night. To see this come to fruition, to build this program the right way, not having to recruit kids and doing it with the kids that are in our building, tonight was a testament to them, our administration and our school as a whole.”

Cribeiro watched his air raid offense, which can put up plenty of points in a flash, get bogged down in the first half before exploding in the second half.

Goleman led 6-3 at the break but when the second half arrived, the game turned into a bushel full of big plays by both teams. In the end, when crunch time arrived it was Belamour Jr. who made the biggest play of the night when he stuffed South Dade running back Elijah Francois short of the goal line on an attempted two-point conversion with 3:51 left.

“I knew how big the play was because they were trying to tie it up,” said Belamour Jr., who also scored two touchdowns from his running back position including the game winner from three yards out with 5:05 left. “The previous two point conversion they had run that same play so I was looking for it again. I read it perfectly and managed to shoot through a gap and drop him.”

With South Dade out of timeouts, the Gators, thanks to a couple of big runs by Rashad Gaines, a clutch 33-yard completion from Potts to Atoa and a personal foul face mask on the Bucs, were able to run out the remainder of the clock.

“We’ve been doing this all year. Just going out there, executing and finding a way to put points up on the board,” said Potts, who completed 25-of-38 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns. “We didn’t do much in the first half but really got things going after that. A great win for us as this is the first time we’ve made it this far so that’s really cool.”

Atoa was by far Potts’ favorite target as he reeled in nine receptions for 162 yards and was on the receiving end of both of Potts’ third quarter touchdown passes from 16 and 11 yards. Bell III, a senior and Florida State commit, was all over the place. He had numerous pass breakups from his cornerback position on defense, ran in a pair of successful two point conversion from his wildcat quarterback position and then, from the wildcat, fired a perfect pass to a wide open Belamour Jr. for the final two-point conversion that turned out to be the winning points.

The Bucs (5-6) never led in the game but continued to press Goleman throughout the second half.

After Potts hit Atoa for that first score to make it 14-6 (Bell III running in the two-pointer), running back George Laster scored from two yards out for the Bucs but the two-point conversion failed. Potts then led his offense back down the field and found Atoa again for another score and when Bell III ran another two pointer in, it was 22-12 with 33 seconds left in the third.

The Bucs, led by quarterback Ashton Adair (16-of-31, 246 yards, 2 touchdowns) charged right back going 82 yards in just four plays (thanks to a 70-yard halfback option pass from Eric Townsend to Antonio Simmons) with Adair hitting James Hope for a 7-yard score one minute into the fourth quarter.

Rarely do placekickers make headlines but South Dade’s Sam Mykel sure did.

After nailing one 45-yard field goal at the end of the first half and then a short 21-yarder to tie the score 6-6 early in the second half, he nailed another 45-yarder to tie the game at 22 with 8:05 left.

Potts then led the Gators on their longest sustained drive of the night (80 yards in 13 plays) before Belamour Jr. plowed into the end zone with 5:05 left and followed that up with the two-point reception from Bell III to put the Gators up by eight.

Thanks to a 40-yard kickoff return out to midfield by Hope, Adair wasted little time, hitting Hope with a 41-yard touchdown pass three plays later before Belamour Jr. made his game-saving defensive play on Francois.

This story was originally published November 16, 2025 at 8:42 AM.