Piper gets ugly win to advance

SUNRISE — Piper flag football coach Jerry Jones didn’t look like a man whose team was about to win its 11th straight game.

He didn’t sound like the coach of a team seconds from its first regional final berth since 2012.

“We played so bad,” he told his girls in a huddle with 38 seconds left and a 7-0 lead. “This game is terrible.”

But if Jones was dejected, his team seemed glad to escape with a win over District 11 champs Coral Glades. Smiles were cracked and laughs suppressed as they broke the huddle and returned to the field for one final play from scrimmage.

It took a lot of work, and plenty of adjustments to get this far.

After faltering early from their spread offense, the Bengals switched to a run-first attack out of a goal line formation in the second quarter.

That was a major part of their only scoring drive.

The other major factor? Zaniya Jones’ crucial fourth down catch at the two-yard line to set up Emily Townsend’s QB sneak for the day’s only touchdown.

“It came down to a couple different plays, and we just came up short,” said Coral Glades coach Chris Haire. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”

The Jaguars came as close as you could come to tying it up in the final two minutes. After a fourthand-goal catch from Tori Knabel, Mikeyah Marshall extended through a sea of Bengals at the goal line, coming up a yard short.

In the moments before, coach Jones had a simple message for his girls. “We’re the reason the score is what it is. We have to finish this out.”

When push came to shove, the Bengals stepped up.

With the 7-0 win, they move on to Tuesday’s Region 3-2A finals, where they’ll take on the winner of Friday’s Park Vista-Seminole Ridge game.