FORT PIERCE — Fort Pierce Central football’s best season in more than a decade has ended in heartbreaking fashion at the hands of the reigning region champions.
Dr. Phillips kicker Federico Montalvo-Salazar hit a 25-yard field goal as time expired to complete a miraculous fourth-quarter rally for a 22-21 victory in the Region 3-7A semifinal on Friday, Nov. 21 at Lawnwood Stadium.
Fort Pierce Central led 21-6 and held the ball midway through the fourth quarter before the Panthers scored the game’s final 16 points.
“I’m sure (players) felt like it got stolen from them again. It almost got stolen last week and they feel like it got stolen from them this week,” Central head coach Mike Watkins said. “You can’t point the finger and blame any one thing, we just didn’t make a play or a couple plays when we needed to. And that was the difference in the game.”
Recovering a fumble in its own territory, the Panthers drove 61 yards in two minutes, capped by a 1-yard plunge from Quashawn Benjamin. Central stuffed the two-point conversion to maintain a two-score lead with 4 minutes, 10 seconds left.
Following a Cobras three-and-out, Dr. Phillips marched down the field as a 26-yard touchdown pass from Tien Williams to Zhytrez Ervin pulled the visitors to within 21-19 with 41 seconds left.
Central recovered the onside kick but opted for three kneel downs to exhaust all three Panthers timeouts. The home team seemingly sealed the game when Marquan Burgess recovered a muffed punt, but the Cobras were called for a penalty.
Dr. Phillips originally was set to attempt a 42-yard field, but back-to-back Central penalties, including a running-into-the-kicker flag on a kick that missed wide right, gave the visitors more life.
Montalvo-Salazar earned redemption after missing a short field goal and an extra-point try in the first quarter.
“I got off to that rough start, but it all came down to that last kick,” the kicker said. “I knew once I put it all in Jesus’s hands that I was gonna send the team and my seniors, that deserve this opportunity, back to the regional finals.”
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Dr. Phillips (9-3) will face Vero Beach (12-0) in the Region 3-7A championship game on Friday, Nov. 28. It’s a rematch of last year’s region final, which was won by Dr. Phillips 21-14.
“We are about faith, family, education and football. Faith always comes first,” Panthers head coach Rodney Wells said. “I tell the guys you got to have faith over in the face of adversity, that’s all it takes.
“And obviously, these guys have faith. They never gave up.”
Fort Pierce Central closes the season with a 10-2 record.
Here are five takeaways from a game that came down to the wire.
‘I just screwed it up’
Undoubtedly, Watkins’ decision to have junior quarterback Drew LaPlante kneel on three successive plays will be up for discussion.
Central junior Zach Hunt-Bianco recovered an onside kick following Ervin’s score. But when one first down would’ve sealed the win, the head coach went away from a running game that struggled throughout the night and did not want to risk an incompletion to stop the clock and allow the road team to save a timeout.
“We wanted to force them out of timeouts, punt the ball off and make a play,” Watkins said. “They had 24 seconds and our defense has been phenomenal all year. … In retrospect, I just screwed it up and we should’ve just ran our offense. That’s on me, I just lost the game.”
Deja vu
Burgess appeared to make a game-sealing recovery once Torrey Scott muffed the ensuing punt. The Cobras offense was on the field and ready to line up in victory formation, but the officials flagged the home side for interfering with Scott.
Fort Pierce Central players, coaches and fans were enraged, in part because the flag was similar to a reversal near the end of the team’s 28-27 win against Palm Beach Central in the regional quarterfinals.
“They ruled in our favor, just like they did last week. And they reversed the call from the other side of the field,” Watkins said.
‘We have two quarterback, that’s a good thing’
Like with any comeback or blown advantage, the result would be different if one or two plays went in another direction. This game was another example of that.
To the Panthers’ credit, they moved the ball down the field three times in the fourth quarter. And they did so without their best player stuck on the sidelines for the entire second half. Senior running back Zion Matthews had 19 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown as part of an uptempo rushing attack before turning an ankle in the second quarter.
Dr. Phillips instead pinned its hopes on the legs of Williams and senior quarterback Camren West. The duo escaped pressured and rolled out of the pocket either to pass or, more frequently, pull it down for chunk plays. The road team had four plays of 15 yards or more in the final six minutes.
“They both are really good,” Wells said of his quarterbacks. “They both can run, they both can throw and run the offense. We have faith in both of them. … We have two quarterbacks, that’s a good thing.”
‘That was our real team’
Fort Pierce Central entered halftime down 6-0 after being outgained 113-18 yards in the first quarter and committing two turnovers in the second.
However, the Cobras exploded out of the gates in the third. They surged ahead when Burgess took a short pass in the flat, broke two tackles and carried a defender into the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown reception.
The hosts added to their cushion with two-play scoring drives over their next two possessions. LaPlante fired scoring passes to A.J. Hill and Burgess, going for 38 and 46 yards, respectively.
“Coach gave us a good speech in the locker room,” said Cobras junior Chad DeVries, who had an interception. “The game was only 6-0, so it definitely not out of reach at all. That was our real team, not the team that came out in the first half.”
‘It’s hard to talk about that after what just happened’
Fort Pierce Central’s two losses this season were by a combined total of nine points against the teams set to face off for the region title.
The Cobras doubled their win total from a season ago and advancing through the regional postseason is nothing to sneeze at. Still, with some of his players in tears as they walked off the field, Watkins struggled to put the year in perspective after being left to think of what could’ve been.
“It’s hard to talk about that after what just happened,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll look at it and be really thankful for the season and the kids and the coaches, who were unbelievable. It’s hard not to feel like, as the head coach who is making the majority of the decisions, that I didn’t let everybody down. We’re 10-2 and the program is going in the right direction, but it’s hard to swallow this.”
The team loses 22 players to graduation, including Burgess, athlete J.J. Blackwood and defensive lineman Exavier Mertilus. Meanwhile, LaPlante, Hill and DeVries are slated to be back.
“We’re going to hit the offseason hard,” DeVries said. “I do wish the seniors could experience that with us, but hopefully next year we’re make a further run.”
Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He can be reached at 772-985-9692, on X at @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Dr. Phillips football stuns Fort Pierce Central with playoff rally
Reporting by Patrick Bernadeau and Eric J. Wallace, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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