West Boca Raton, FL.- Palm Beach County has officially punched their ticket to the FHSAA State Finals for the first time since 2018 (The King’s Academy)!
Tonight (December 6), the West Boca Bulls hosted the Miami Southridge Spartans in the FHSAA 6A State Semifinals. This matchup faced two of the state’s most high flying, explosive offenses against suffocating defenses. When you pair two of the area’s top squads against each other, fireworks were bound to go off, and they certainly did, but in the most improbable of ways.
Early in the matchup, Southridge opened the scoring with a nice 39 yard field goal.
What seemed like moments later, the Spartans’ offense found themselves back on the field, and marching. Backs against the wall, just inside the five, the Bulls’ defense forced a fumble, recovered by Marc-Sanchtz Lordeus and returned for a 97 yard scoop and score. (7-3 West Boca,3:09 1st). West Boca’s secondary was on fire tonight, as recent Alabama State signee Aaron Ford Jr. came away with two crucial first half interceptions, and both Xavier and Maxwell Reid were provided numerous backfield hurries and TFL’s.
After the defensive ricochet of possessions, our score stayed gridlocked at 7-3 headed into halftime.
Midway through the third quarter, West Boca found the end zone again as Trey Moran kept it himself, fighting for a 2 yard score. After more back and forth action and stalled drives, all hell broke loose.
With five minutes remaining in the ball game, SouthRidge found themselves faced with a fourth and long, just outside the 35. Spartans QB James Perrone found Darius Clements for an explosive YAC score. After a successful two point try, West Boca’s lead was cut to 14-11. After forcing a three and out again, the Spartans defense exited the field, and their offense trotted on with all the momentum in the world. Three unsuccessful attempts later, West Boca’s defense forced the Spartans to go for it on 4th down.
Perrone drops back, scans, fires over the middle and the ball gets spiked down to the grass, Bulls ball. Here’s where this one gets fun. With just under 15 seconds left, Moran rolls out and gets the ball punched out, SouthRidge recovers the fumble and the mad dash to the end zone ensues. As the Spartan defender gets inside the five, he dives for the pylon, and the contact on ground forces the ball loose, recovered by West Boca. Touchback, Bulls’ ball.
With 3 seconds left, Trey Moran kneels out the final seconds and West Boca’s team rushes the field victorious. For the first time in program history, the West Boca Bulls have advanced to the FHSAA State Finals, where they will face off against the Osceola Kowboys. This game will be hosted at FIU’s Pitbull Stadium on Friday, December 13th, with a kickoff time of 12:30 P.M.
