WEST PALM BEACH — When Royal Palm Beach High’s defense made a stop at the 1-yard line on the final play of the game against Palm Beach Lakes, it accomplished two things.
First, it preserved the Wildcats’ fifth shutout of the season, sealing a 32-0 victory over the Rams in the first round of the inaugural Florida Invitational Tournament on Nov. 13.
Second, and perhaps more important from the players’ standpoint, it earned them a day off.
“I told them if they won by 28 points, they wouldn’t have practice tomorrow,” first-year coach Sam Curry said after the Wildcats extended their season for at least another week.
Royal Palm Beach (7-4), seeded fifth in the eight-team region, will face top-seeded Dr. Joaquin Garcia (8-3) on Nov. 20. The tournament features teams that just missed out on qualifying for the FHSAA playoffs.
Senior running back Tyree Pearson, a 1,000-yard rusher during the regular season, scored three touchdowns to help the Wildcats pull away in the second half. Pearson scored on runs of 1 and 3 yards in the third quarter and caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Max Griner in the fourth.
Griner also threw a 25-yard TD pass to junior running back Demetrice Rolle, and senior safety Raoul Brown added a defensive score when he raced 78 yards with a pick-six with 2:05 left in the game.
“I think we’ve got one of the best defenses in Palm Beach County,” Brown said. “We shut down a lot of teams. We make it hard for every team to score.”
Defense carried Royal Palm Beach in the scoreless first half. While the offense turned the ball over three times, twice in the red zone, the defense held Palm Beach Lakes’ explosive passing game to three completions for 12 yards.
“The defense kept us in the game,” Curry said. “We were playing off emotion (in the first half), because a lot of the kids know the other kids and they were trying to press. I just told them to relax and play our game.”
The Wildcats took the second-half kickoff and drove 73 yards for a score, highlighted by a sensational 28-yard catch by freshman wide receiver Amarri Woods on a fourth-and-11 play. After a three-and-out by the Rams, Pearson scored his second touchdown to put the Wildcats in control at 14-0.
All that was left to decide was whether Royal Palm could pitch the shutout. In the closing minutes, backup quarterback Quentin Williams led Lakes down the field against the Wildcats’ reserves. When the Rams reached the 5-yard line, Curry put most of his starters back in the game, and Williams’ scramble ended with a vicious hit at the 1 as time expired.
As Royal Palm Beach poured it on in the fourth quarter, the trash talking ramped up and players were assessed penalties for personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct. With the game “getting chippy in the end,” in the words of Lakes coach Turmarian Moreland, the Rams decided to forgo the traditional postgame handshake line, heading straight to the locker room.
The Royal Palm-Garcia game will be a rematch of an Oct. 30 game, which the Bulldogs won 27-26. When the FIT brackets were released on Nov. 7, “that was the first thing we saw,” Curry said. “I’m happy to play them again.”
Both coaches said they appreciated the opportunity to extend the season, even though their teams didn’t make it into the main playoff draw.
Curry said the FIT offers a chance for players like Pearson and Brown — seniors who have yet to find a college home — to get more exposure. Moreland said the tournament was a nice reward for a rebuilding program.
“When we took the program over two years ago, it was one of the worst programs around,” Moreland said. “In two years, we had a winning season and we got to play in a plus-one game, so it was big for our guys.”
Florida Invitational Tournament results
Thursday
FHSAA results
Thursday
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Here’s how the inaugural Florida Invitational Tournament kicked off in Palm Beach County
Reporting by Eric J. Wallace, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
