Palmetto QB Smith leads comeback victory
All season long, Palmetto has waited for Kevin Smith to play to the potential the Panthers know he has.
The senior has been starting at quarterback since he was a sophomore, and his cannon arm and 6-2, 195-pound frame helped him land a scholarship offer from Arizona State last year. The Panthers honored him as part of their pregame seniorday festivities at Tropical Park and then, for the first time all season, they left him on the bench to start the game.
“I kind of played bad last week, so they kind of sat me,” Smith said, sheepishly. “Coach told me to just keep my head, ‘Don’t get down because we’re going to need you at some point.’ ”
His time came late in the second quarter after Palmetto went three-andout on each of its first three drives against Edison and needed to find some sort of spark on offense. He led the Panthers to a couple first downs before halftime and then finally delivered touchdowns in the second half to steer Palmetto to a come-from-behind, 14-6 win against the Red Raiders in Miami.
Smith launched an 81yard touchdown pass to star wide receiver Bobby Golden to give the Panthers (7-2) a 7-3 lead with 6:59 left in the second quarter, and they never trailed again. The star quarterback guided one more nine-play, 87-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter to push Palmetto’s lead to 14-6, and the Panthers’ defense shut out Edison (6-4) the rest of the way to close out the regular season with a victory.
Smith finished 8 of 14 for 184 yards and one touchdown, which was all Palmetto needed to win a defensive struggle on the final Friday of the regular season.
On defense, star athlete Mike Jackson grabbed three interceptions in the first half, including one in the red zone, and helped keep the Red Raiders out of the end zone entirely by holding standout wide receiver Nathaniel Joseph, who’s already orally committed to Clemson as a junior, to just six catches for 52 yards.
On offense, Smith helped put together two big plays — the 81-yard touchdown pass to Golden and a 62-yard completion to Jackson in the fourth — and turned both into touchdowns.
“We have explosive potential,” Jackson said.
First, the Panthers just needed to survive the first half.
Edison opened with an eight-play, 54-yard drive to take a 3-0 lead on a short field goal by kicker Derek Fletes. Palmetto went three-and-out.
The Red Raiders’ next drive went just one play, as Jackson hauled in a deflected pass for his first interception. The Panthers went three-and-out.
Once again, Palmetto’s defense held and forced a punt. The Panthers, again, went three-and-out and gave Edison possession at midfield.
It was the Red Raiders’ best chance for a multiscore lead and they got as close as the Panthers’ 8-yard line before a penalty backed them up to the 19. Kevin Wilson went for the end zone and Jackson picked off the Edison quarterback at the 3 for his second interception.
Finally, Palmetto went back to Smith at quarterback and Jackson made one more interception with 2:27 left in the half to keep the Red Raiders’ lead to 3-0 at halftime despite just 17 total yards for the Panthers.
“That was our biggest goal,” Palmetto coach Mike Manasco said, “just staying in the game in the first half.”
After one more threeand-out to start the second half, the Panthers started their second drive of the third quarter at their own 1. A pair of runs pushed them out of their own end zone and Smith delivered the big throw Palmetto knows he’s capable of.
A Western 13, Miramar 9: Western defensive back Websley Etienne knew Miramar was going to try to make a big play. Miramar was down to its last chance — fourth-and-11, 35 yards from the end zone, down by four points with about two minutes left.
Quarterback Travis Delaney Jr. dropped back, looked over his options and fired a pass toward the middle of the field.
Etienne was waiting. He anticipated the double move by the receiver, jumped the route and recorded the game-sealing interception to cap Western’s win on Friday night.
“It just came straight to me,” Etienne said, “so I had to make a play.”
The play stymied Miramar’s bid for a secondhalf comeback and all but assured Western will be the top seed in Region 4-8A when the playoffs begin next week. The Wildcats went 8-2 during the regular season, their lone losses coming to Chaminade-Madonna on
Aug. 27 to begin the season and to St. Thomas Aquinas on Sept. 24.
And the gritty, grind-itout win the Wildcats had was exactly the type of game Western wanted to close out the regular season.
The Wildcats had blown out each of their past five opponents, giving up just a field goal in the process and working running clocks each of the past three weeks.
They wanted their final tune-up before the playoffs to be a challenge.
They certainly got one on Friday.
Western jumped out to a two-touchdown lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Collin Hurst to Tyreik Thorpe and a 21-yard Nelson Walker rushing touchdown before Miramar’s Desmond Reid broke off a 90-yard touchdown run with 12 seconds left in the first half to make the score 13-7 heading into the break.
The Wildcats had to rely on their defense in the second half to keep the lead intact.
And the defense was busy.
Miramar (6-3), which will be the No. 4 seed in Region 4-7A, ran 27 plays in the second half to Western’s 17.
The only points the Patriots recorded in the second half, though, came on a safety with 11:39 left in the game.
A 13-play drive, featuring a fourth-and-1 conversion near midfield and two more third downs after that to get just outside the red zone? Zero points.
A short field after recovering a fumble? Zero points.
Getting the ball back at midfield after the safety? Zero points.
“Our defense just kept coming up big every time we put them in a bad situation,” Western coach Adam Ratkevich said.
Western’s offense had the opportunity to put the game out of reach midway through the fourth quarter. The Wildcats marched 84 yards down the field in 12 plays to set up fourthand-goal from the 2-yard line. Hurst faked the handoff and ran up the middle, appearing to cross the goal line for a touchdown, but the ball was jarred loose. Miramar recovered, giving the Patriots one final chance to drive 80 yards to complete the comeback.
“It gets anxious back there,” Hurst said about having to watch the final drive unfold. “You can’t control what the defense does, but I trust my guys.”
They showed why in the end, with Etienne’s interception finishing it off.