Columbus wins 8A football crown in Tri-County tourney
There might not have been a berth in the state championship on the line.
That didn’t mean Columbus and Deerfield Beach, two programs that squared off against each other in the 8A state semifinals each of the past two years, weren’t going to go at it with just as much intensity when they played Saturday night at Traz Powell Stadium in the Class 8A gold bracket championship game of the South Florida Tri-County tournament.
And what a treat the crowd got as the game had a series of big plays in a fourth quarter that featured four lead changes.
And once again, it was Columbus that frustrated a determined Deerfield
Beach team by coming up with one more big play than the Bucks, emerging with a 27-24 win to capture the 8A Gold Championship.
The payoff moment came with 5:12 left when, trailing 24-20, Columbus quarterback Fernando Mendoza scrambled to his left, squared up and tossed a perfect throw to the end zone – just before he got hit by a charging Bucks defensive lineman – that found his favorite receiver, Chris Gibert, for a 13-yard touchdown.
“I wanted to go with the slant but it wasn’t there so I just rolled out to try and buy myself more time,” Mendoza said. “I saw Chris coming across, and I knew the window was tight. If I threw too early it wouldn’t be there but if I waited another second, I could see him coming open. But knew I would take the hit. That’s no problem, it’s called sacrificing for your brothers.”
It marked the eighth time the two hooked up on the night as Gibert finished with eight catches for 94 yards including a 3-yard touchdown from Mendoza in the first quarter that gave Columbus an early 7-3 lead. Mendoza finished his big night 16 of 25 for 226 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s a play we work on all the time in practice,” Gibert said. “I saw Fernando was rolling the other way and knew I had to make a play and come across the other side of the field and allow him to put only where I could get it.”
The Bucks took the next possession and drove to the Columbus 42 with 2:04 left and faced and fourth and 4. But when quarterback Marquise Pierre tried to scramble up the middle, Daylen Russell, Rodney Williams
Jr. and Kesean NorrisHayes were there to drag him down 2 yards short.
Just when it looked like the Explorers might have to punt it back after the Bucks used two timeouts, Deerfield got called for a personal foul on third down giving Columbus a first down allowing them to take two kneel downs.
The win wasn’t quite up there from a year ago when Columbus turned in a dramatic late rally to edge Apopka and win the 8A state title, but one would’ve ever known it by the way the coaches and players celebrated.
FORT LAUDERDALE WINS 7A SILVER TITLE
It didn’t matter that they were in the No. 5 spot when the original seedings were announced. When it came to performing on the field, the Fort Lauderdale Flying L’s acted like a No. 1 seed for the past few weeks. Following road wins against No. 4 Royal Palm Beach and top-seeded Blanche Ely in the semifinals, the L’s capped off a terrific run Saturday afternoon when they downed South Broward 35-6 in the 7A Silver Tri-County Series Championship game at Traz Powell Stadium.
“What a terrific thing they did putting a tournament like this together,” said Flying L’s coach Richard Dunbar. “We struggled so badly at the start of the season dealing with the loss of players due to the COVID restrictions that we weren’t sure if we would actually be able to keep things going at one point. Then we get our players back, make it into this tournament and watched everything come together and culminate today with this great victory.”