Dillard dominates first half to bury Fort Lauderdale

FORT LAUDERDALE — Visiting Dillard struck early and often in building a 35-0 halftime lead and cruised to the Class 7A regional quarterfinal win over Fort Lauderdale at AutoNation Community Field on Friday night.

Dillard coach Tyler Tate said the game was business as usual as the team followed the game plan en route to the 42-0 whitewashing.

“We just wanted to come out to the early start and try and put this game away so we could get ready for the next round,” Tate said. “We got a great team. These guys come out and work hard every day. They put themselves in a position to do great on Friday night and everybody played great tonight.”

The Panthers (10-1) have won three straight following their lone loss of the season, 23-13 to St. Thomas Aquinas. Wins by both teams in the regional semifinals would set up a rematch.

Dillard scored on its first two offensive possessions to seize control of the game taking a 14-0 lead on a 29-yard scoring run by Christopher Johnson and a 5-yard run by Jaferris Finley with 4:43 remaining in the opening quarter.

Dillard drove 70 yards in seven plays to up the lead to 21-0 with

9:31 left in the first half off a 10-yard scoring pass from Armani Norcius to DeVaughn Mortimer.

Fort Lauderdale failed to get anything going and the Panthers scored again as they put together a 10-play, 73-yard drive to extend the lead to 28-0 with 3:32 left in the half on a 1-yard run off left tackle by Method Bradley.

Fort Lauderdale put together its best drive of the night as they used

13 plays and reached the Panthers’

18 with 15.2 seconds left. On fourth down, though, Flying L’s quarterback Jadyn Glasser was sacked for a 9-yard loss back to the 27 and the Panthers capitalized as Norcius hit Mortimer on a screen pass and he went the distance covering 73 yards on the final play of the first half for a

35-0 lead. Norcius was 11 for 16 for

158 yards and two scores, all in the first half. Mortimer caught four of those for 90 yards and two scores.

Finley led the Panthers with six carries for 55 yards and a TD.

Dillard added one more score on a 30 yard scoring toss from Syrius Smith to Travis Jean with 8:31 left in the third.

The Panthers will travel to Homestead to play the Broncos, a

55-3 winner over South Broward, in the regional semifinals.

The last time the teams met was last year when Dillard topped the Flying L’s 42-20 in the inaugural game at AutoNation Community Field. Should the Panthers advance to the state championship game, they would simply go across the street and play at DRV PNK Stadium.

“I like this place,” Tate said. “The goal is to play in that stadium. It is going to take hard work and we will have to persevere. We have to go out and execute. You are never satisfied and we have some things to clean up to get better.”

Flying L’s coach Richard Dunbar said it was difficult to overcome the early deficit.

“That’s a great team and they are well-coached,” Dunbar said. “They have great athletes over there and when you are playing a team like that you can’t let them get out fast on you. You can’t hurt yourself with penalties. We just have to regroup. It has been an up and down year with the discipline and we have to do better moving forward.”

After Fort Lauderdale (6-3) won the first district title in program history, the Flying L’s closed out to year with back-to-back shutout losses to their neighborhood rivals — Stranahan (36-0) and Dillard.

“I think at some point we did lose our focus,” Dunbar said. “As a whole, after we won the district title, we kind of got away from doing the things that got us there . ... Now it is time to help these seniors play out their futures and what they are going to do in the next 40 to 50 years of their life.”