South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Eagles defense overwhelms Raiders, forcing 3 turnovers
DELRAY BEACH — Sophomore quarterback Lincoln Graf passed for 121 yards and four scores and a stingy Atlantic defense blanked visiting Glades Central, 43-0 on Friday night.
The Eagles (6-3) forced three turnovers and held the Raiders (2-7) to just 53 total yards of offense in winning their third straight game.
Atlantic coach Jamael Stewart said the team has matured since the beginning of the season.
“We know we are young, but the kids are athletic,” Stewart said. “They needed to learn the game of football, so we took a look at the way we were practicing, and we were coaching them at their potential, and we went back to the basics — Pop Warner, youth football and make it fun and have our kids play fast. We dumbed down our offensive playbook and defensive scheme, and our kids are now playing fast. They are basically doing what we want them to do.”
Graf connected on a 29-yard TD to junior Oneil Shearer and then hit senior Mi’Kel Hendrix for a 5-yard score to give the Eagles a 14-0 first-quarter lead.
The Eagles made it 22-0 on a 38-yard scoring run by junior Da’marion Alberic with 11:23 left in the first half.
Graf extended the lead to 29-0 on a 6-yard scoring toss to Shearer with 10:14 left in the third quarter as they took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in six plays. The big play in the drive was a 41-yard carry by Alberic on the first offensive play. Alberic finished the game with 10 carries for 120 yards and a score.
“It was a good performance for me tonight,” Alberic said. “Coaches told me to come out here and do my job and that’s what I did. I put points on the board for my team.
“It’s very helpful having a quarterback like Lincoln,” he added, “it just shows we can score in different ways. We thought we could take advantage of their D-Line. We thought our O-Line was better and they did the job.”
On the ensuing drive, Atlantic’s Hendrix recovered a fumble on the Raiders’ 22, and just two plays later Graf hit senior Martay McClendon on a 17-yard scoring play and forced a running clock. It was Graf ’s 21st TD of the season.
“We liked our matchups and just made our plays,” Graf said. “That’s the big thing about our offense if we are making our plays we are a really good team.”
The Eagles’ junior Jovante Pierre-Louis closed out the scoring on a 5-yard TD run with 50 seconds remaining for the final 43-0 margin.
Atlantic, who has lost its three games by a total of 16 points, is peaking at the right time with three straight wins. They close the regular season by visiting Santaluces (8-1), who lost for the first time on Friday night, 21-18 to Park Vista.