PALM BEACH GARDENS – In football, the good teams usually find ways to get lucky.
For Benjamin, that luck didn’t come until the second half.
At halftime, Benjamin was trailing 10-0 and struggled to get much going. In the third quarter, though, the Buccaneers found their breakthrough.
With the help of their offensive line, Bucs running back Chauncey Bowens displayed his level of domination by scoring the team’s opening touchdown in the third quarter.
“We rely on certain players to make big plays and sometimes, we don’t know how that’s going to happen. Sometimes, we can’t draw it up. We just got to try and get certain guys the ball,” Benjamin head coach Eric Kresser said. “I got them fired up and told them we were going to run it and [Benjamin running back Chauncey Bowens] … he came out with a big spark and looked like he was unstoppable there for a little bit.”
In the fourth quarter, though, Benjamin must have found itself a four-leaf clover because the luck was definitely on its side.
A brief change at quarterback was made in the beginning of the game’s final frame, as the Bucs brought in junior athlete Jacob Cosby-Mosley to run a play.
“We wanted to get a spark, we wanted to get a different look,” Kresser said regarding the decision. “Jacob is one of the best athletes in the county.”
On his one play under center, Cosby-Mosley provided an immediate spark when he pitched the ball out to senior wide receiver Darrell Sweeting, who outran the entire Palm Beach Gardens defense for a 76-yard touchdown that resulted in a 12-10 lead.
“We had a read option call. Ran it and then the linebacker blitzed the A-gap and I’m not gonna set Chauncey [Bowens] up like that, can’t do my guy like that, so I pull it. Outside linebacker comes up. I stiff-arm him, now I got four guys on my back.” Cosby-Mosley said, recalling what happened during the play. “I see Darrell [saying] ‘give me the ball! Give me the ball! Give me the ball!’ I send a prayer up, I’m like ‘I hope it gets to him.’ I flick it out, he did the rest. He handled it.”
Following a Palm Beach Gardens touchdown by junior running back Johnarri Rumph – which gave the Gators the lead back – the Bucs found arguably their strongest stroke of luck to take the lead back again and for good.
After a fumble by their quarterback, the ball – almost too conveniently – wound up in the hands of Bowens who, in his true fashion, made a defender miss en route to a 47-yard touchdown, which gave Benjamin a 20-18 lead.
“That was luck,” Kresser said with a chuckle. “That was a short-yardage quarterback sneak. Somebody ripped it out of his hands, and just lucky that Chauncey was sitting there. Now, afterward, Chauncey did make some guys miss and made some things. It wasn’t an easy run for him.”
Bowens, who wound up finishing with two touchdowns, said the whole play felt like a “blur.”
“Honestly, it felt like a blur to me,” Bowens said. “But I know we always reiterate that big-time players are going to make big-time plays. Once I got the ball, I saw one defender, made him miss, and then, after that, I just let everything take care of itself.”
It is fitting that Bowens was among the major impact players in the second half. Bowens has proven to be one of the very best overall players in Palm Beach County – regardless of class.
“I think every coach wishes they had a guy like Chauncey,” Kresser said. “In my mind, he’s a five-star prospect. He’ll probably be able to go to any college he wants to.”
While a victory in the game will not count towards either team’s official record, a win was a nice touch for Benjamin.
“It was big to let us know that we could play with bigger schools,” Bowens said. “In the old classifications, we were 3A and they were 8A. So us going to a very physical school and playing with them just proved that we have the group of guys to go all the way this year.”
While Kresser agrees that the win can set a tone for the rest of the year, he still feels like there is some work that needs to be done to put it all together – especially with a tough start to this season for Benjamin.
“The next few weeks, we have some tough games,” Kresser said. “We’re going to have to play a lot better. Got some tough guys coming in. You know, we got John Carroll coming in, then we have to go to Pahokee, and we got Newman, then we have to go to Gulliver Prep. … That’s the first half of our season.”
WEEK 1 GAMES
Benjamin will open up its regular season next Thursday (Aug. 25), hosting John Carroll (Fort Pierce) at 6:30 p.m.
Palm Beach Gardens will travel to Atlantic (Delray Beach) next Friday (Aug. 26) to open up its regular season. The kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
