Pahokee football wades through rain delay, injury scare to beat Dwyer

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Glass half-full: Pahokee High's football team played a near-perfect first half, holding Dwyer without a first down or a pass completion, blocking a field-goal attempt, converting an interception into a touchdown and building a 21-0 lead.

Glass half-empty: Pahokee stalled on offense in the second half, and the defense started giving up big plays to let Dwyer back into the game.

In the end, the Blue Devils came away with a 27-13 victory Friday night, but it wasn't assured until Rashon Brown ran 4 yards for a touchdown with 2:12 remaining.

"You just can't leave things to chance," Pahokee coach Matthew Sparrowhawk said. "I know they've been struggling, but with high school kids anything can happen."

The Blue Devils improved to 4-2 with the non-district victory. The Panthers, who rallied with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, fell to 1-5.

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Here are three takeaways from the game, which started an hour late because of lightning in the area and was played in a light drizzle.

Injury stops game

The Blue Devils have had problems staying healthy, and injuries continue to plague them as they enter the second half of the season.

The scariest moment for Sparrowhawk came just after Brown's clinching touchdown. Pierre Fertil, a versatile senior whose long kickoff return had set up Brown's score, was injured on the kickoff coverage team. As he lay motionless on the sideline, the game was stopped for more than 15 minutes while trainers attended to him.

Players from both teams knelt on the field, some of them praying, and a hush fell over the crowd. Finally, Fertil was helped to his feet. With players, coaches and fans applauding, he was taken in a golf cart to a waiting ambulance.

"It's tough anytime you see a kid laying there," Sparrowhawk said. "It's scary and it's hard to finish a game like that."

Sparrowhawk said he thought Fertil suffered a concussion. "We wanted to get him checked out just to be on the safe side," he said.

Running back Jennoris Wilcher sat out the second half with an apparent ankle injury. The Blue Devils also were missing two linemen with injuries.

"We've got to get healthy," Sparrowhawk said. "If we're a healthy team, I think we'll be fine."

Brown steps in

Brown, a junior, handled most of the running chores with Wilcher on the sideline. He scored on a 9-yard run in the second quarter and the 4-yard run in the fourth.

"I was sad for (Wilcher), but then I had to step up and help the team win," Brown said.

Asked if he'd ever scored two touchdowns in a game, Brown smiled and said, "Little League."

The Blue Devils' first two touchdowns came through the air, with JayJay Boyd and Hardley Gilmore connecting on scoring passes of 54 and 12 yards. But the plan was to run the ball as much as possible, Sparrowhawk said, especially given the soggy field.

"We've got to get better at running the ball," he said. "We know we can line up and throw the football."

Wilcher, Brown and sophomore Samuel Arnold consistently gained yardage but were unable to break big plays against the Panthers' stout defense.

Dwyer coach encouraged

The game followed a familiar script for Dwyer: Fall behind early and mount a comeback, but fall short of a victory.

"Like I just told the guys, we can't continue to start out slow, which we have on offense pretty much all year," coach Al Shipman said. "We also can't continue to shoot ourselves in the foot. We get positive yards, and then there's a snap over the head, a dropped pass, a holding penalty. ... Right now we're just not good enough to overcome those types of mistakes."

Shipman made a change at quarterback in the second half, inserting senior Derrick Flanders, and that seemed to awaken the offense.

Flanders completed a 9-yard pass on his first play — the Panthers' first completion — and later earned their initial first down with a 22-yard pass to Antoine Perry.

Early in the fourth quarter, Flanders threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Rodney Green to make it 21-7. He then led the Panthers on a 97-yard scoring drive, completing passes of 53 yards to Dylan Elie and 22 yards to Perry, and Elie ran 6 yards to cut the deficit to 21-13.

"Sometimes coming in from the outside, you've been able to see some of the blitzes and coverages and things of that nature, so I think that definitely gave (Flanders) an advantage," Shipman said of the QB switch. "Also, Pahokee played off a little bit more and didn't blitz as much. He had a little bit more time and our receivers made some plays."

Shipman said he will take some positives from the Panthers' fifth loss.

"This is a resilient bunch," he said. "They'll be here at practice tomorrow, working their tails off. I'm definitely encouraged by the effort and the way they fought. There's just no quit in this team."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Pahokee football overcomes rain delay, injury scare at Dwyer