West Boca Raton, FL.- “We showed everyone why we’re the best damn football team in the County”.- Dylan Potts.
Tonight (November 1), the Atlantic Eagles traveled to West Boca to face off in a matchup that many have dubbed the “Game of The Year”. Well this game certainly lived up to the title, as both squads prepared for war. Entering this week, both Atlantic and West Boca stood at 7-1 on the year, however, due to FHSAA investigations against prior opponents, said squads had to vacate their wins due to ineligible players, allowing West Boca and Atlantic to move to 8-0 on the year.
As much as I do NOT want to shed light to the controversy, it is relevant and worth mentioning. Anyway’s back to our regularly scheduled Game of the Year festivities.
Atlantic opened the game with a very impressive offensive drive that featured tough runs from Deandre Desinor and QB Lincoln Graf. However, when the Eagles entered the red-zone, West Boca’s defense locked in. West Boca held Atlantic’s offense to a goal line stand, only for extra downs to be placed due to penalty. The Bulls bent but did not break, stuffing the offense for a second goal line stand on the 15+ play drive.
Spotted at their own one yard line, West Boca’s Javian Mallory shot through the offensive line and flew for what looked like a 99 yard touchdown rush, striking fear into the hearts of men. After an unfortunate holding call, the play was reversed and the ball was spotted at the 47. West Boca marched down the field, in a drive that ended with a second end zone trip for Mallory.
Just over a minute later, Atlantic found their first end zone trip as Lincoln Graf found Teddy Hoffmann for an Eagles’ score.
After some back and forth drives between both squads, West Boca found themselves back in the end zone just before halftime as Javian Mallory fought his way into the end zone. At the break, West Boca led 14-6.
Following the intermission, Mallory bulldozed his way into the end zone for his third score of the night, lowering his shoulder and diving into the promised land.
Atlantic struck right back as Graf found James Jones for this beautiful jump ball in the back corner of the end zone, cutting the lead 21-14 right before the end of the third.
After an Atlantic fumble recovered by West Boca inside the fifteen, the Bulls capitalize on the prime field positioning with a TD strike from Trey Moran to Anderson Gracillien, extending the West’s lead 28-14.
As the final seconds ticked away, West Boca’s players celebrated victoriously amongst themselves and the student body, as the Bulls emerged 9-0 undefeated for the first time in program history.
During tonight’s game, Javian Mallory solidified himself as one of the top backs in the nation, securing over 200 total yards and 3 scores on the night. All in all, what a day for the West Boca Bulls, who have aspirations of playing many more weeks of football.
