The week in Football: Palmer Trinity Wins First FIFC Championship

  Palmer Trinity Athletic Director Ernest Robertson stood on the sidelines of the FIFC title game, championship trophy in hand, congratulating Hillel’s players on a well-played comeback victory.

  Parents of both teams had resigned themselves to the result.

  After intercepting Dylan DiBello’s pass late in the fourth quarter to seal the victory, there was seemigly no way the Lions could have lost.

  Then mayhem decided to rear its head and throw the Falcons faithful into a frenzy.

  Indeed, Palmer Trinity’s 18-15 win over Hillel in the FIFC Championship game was as improbable as any other in high school football.

  “It has been a very long time since Palmer Trinity was relevant in any way in high school football,” said head coach Rudy Fernandez. “This is absolutely unreal!”

  After giving up a late lead in the fourth quarter, Palmer Trinity had looked to mount one final drive to claim their first ever FIFC trophy in front of the home crowd.

  Blake Miller, who had the Falcons’ two touchdowns in the game to his name, looked to help propel his team forward with the help of the arm of quarterback Dylan DiBello.

  However, with less than 43 seconds on the clock, DiBello was picked off just past mid-field.

  Despite this, Palmer Trinity had all three timeouts remaining, and Hillel’s coaching staff made a critical mistake.

  One of the assistant coaches on the Lions’ sideline yelled “that’s game!” to his quarterback, and the player responded in kind by throwing the ball straight up into the air after the first kneel down.

  This got a delay of game call that stopped the clock for the Falcons.

  Now, unaware of their opponents’ timeout total, Hillel proceeded to kneel down.

  With 12.9 seconds left, Hillel were forced to punt the ball away, and the coaches were furious.

  Blaming the refs and even the scorekeeping judge for being biased, Hillel’s coaches called for a punt formation.

  The snap was low.

  The ball was bobbled.

  A majority of Hillel’s line either ditched their blocking assignments to run down field or didn’t put much effort into blocking at all.

  Palmer Trinity’s Owen Almeida slammed into Hillel’s punter who coughed the ball up, leaving it for Bonet to scoop up and run into the end zone for a touchdown with just 2.4 seconds left on the clock.

  The Fans screamed.

  A Palmer Trinity player, stunned, uttered “I cannot believe this is happening to us right now.”

  After kneeling down on the extra point, Palmer Trinity kicked the ball off to Hillel, who had one shot with 1.7 seconds left to steal their win back.

  Hoping to pull off a University-of-Miami-versus-Duke-style return, the ball was downed and the comeback was complete.

  “I cannot even process what just happened on that field,” exclaimed head coach Rudy Fernandez after the game. “These guys never quit. They never gave up. They continued to play all the way down to the very last snap of the game.”

  The Falcons’ victory gave them their first ever Florida Independent Football Conference Championship in program history, having lost in the finals last season to Hillel.

 Keys Gate Topples Homestead

  In what many are calling the biggest win in program history, Keys Gate defeated Homestead 20-0 at Harris Field.

  “We definitely underachieved, both as a team and as a coaching staff this season,” said head football coach Roger Morgan after the game. “This is the biggest win in our program’s history, not just because we beat Homestead, but because of how these young men came together despite the adversity they faced all season, and were able to play together as a team.”

  After the game, Homestead head football coach Larry Coffey announced to his players that he was resigning, and that the administration would begin the search for a new head coach immediately.

South Dade Beats North Miami Beach

  The Bucs captured a dominant win over North Miami Beach in a 48-12 result to send themselves off to the playoffs with positive momentum.

  James Wiggins ran a 67-yard kickoff back for a touchdown early on, setting the tone for what would follow.

  Darnell Durham started at quarterback, throwing for 83 yards and two touchdowns while adding 70 yards of rushing on the ground.

  South Dade will host Southwest tonight at Harris Field in the first round of the playoffs.

Coral Reef Ends Season With Win

  Licking their wounds from missing the playoffs, Coral Reef outlasted a playoff-bound Hialeah for a 35-15 win.

  Mehki Ervan led the offense for the Barracudas with 141 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

  The Cudas defense looked strong as well, led by Colvin Alford’s two interceptions.

Southridge Drops Miami

  Southridge took on Miami High in their regular season finale and came away with a 31-6 victory at home.

  Drakar Jerry finished the night having gone 8-for-16 passing for 130 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 24 yards.

  Cliff Smith, Jr. rushed for 163 yards on 14 carries, leading the ground attack for the Spartans.

  The defense was the start, however, holding the Stingarees to just six points total while forcing seven sacks.

  Miami looked set for a shutout until the closing moments of the fourth quarter, finally scoring late.

Somerset Falls In Finale

  Somerset Silver Palms were toppled by Holy Trinity Episcopal in a 33-15 result.

  Playing in their first season as a district team, Somerset had several impressive wins, including a massive upset of Keys Gate.

  With a final record of 6-4, the Stallions will look to their talented youth next season to build on their growth in 2015.

Everglades Comeback Falls Short

  Everglades Prep’s comeback attempt against Goleman fell short in a 28-22 loss to close out their season.

  Demetrius Burns led the way on offense with 176 yards passing with two touchdowns.

  Anthony Pitchel hauled in a 35 yard touchdown to open the scoring for Everglades Prep with just 10 minutes left in the game.

  Christopher Hernandez added a 60 yard touchdown catch, followed by a quick score from Kavon Holmes.

  Tackle Jose Valdes added a two-point conversion but the comeback fell short for the Panthers.

FIFC Names All-Conference Players

  Players from Palmer Trinity and Miami Community Charter school were named to the FIFC all-conference teams, signaling strong seasons for both programs.

  Blake Miller, Guillermo Bonet, Winsor Alston, and Omar Montesinos were named to the first team for Palmer Trinity, with Daniel Erixion, Austin Cannon, and Owen Almeida were named to the second team.

  Dylan DiBello and Justin Kross were named to the third team all-conference.

  For Miami Community Charter, Travis Brewster was named to the first team, Ashanti Applebee was named to the second team, and Michael Brown Ogletree was named to the third team.

  Christopher Hudson of Palmer Trinity and Christian Ceanteno of Miami Community Charter were named to the all-conference academic teams.