WEST PALM BEACH – Prior to Friday night’s kickoff, Forest Hill was favored to defeat Palm Beach Lakes with a 55 percent chance to do so.
The Rams (6-3) have been a sleeping giant in Palm Beach County, and they seem to have waken up. With a chance to go to the Class 7A playoffs, both teams knew what was at stake.
Forest Hill jumped to an early 14-0 lead, thanks to two rushing touchdowns from senior athlete Darius McClendon. The Palm Beach Lakes defense did not appear to have an answer for Forest Hill’s heavy run attack in the first half.
Late in the second quarter the Rams offense started to click. After a rushing touchdown by Darius McClendon, the Rams answered with a drive of their own.
Senior quarterback Jalen Hall would find De’Amante Oliver in the corner of the end-zone. That touchdown would give the Rams the momentum and they would not look back.
Right before the half, Jalen Hall would throw his second touchdown of the game by finding junior athlete Antorey Williams up the seams for a 17-yard touchdown. But Forest Hill still had a two-point lead at the half, 14-12.
When play resumed the Falcons (7-2) would get the ball but a early three-and-out would force them to kick the ball to the Rams. On Lakes’ first possession after the half, Hall would score on a 16-yard run that seemed to put the game away. But the scoring wasn’t done there.
Rising junior running back Antwoine Anderson would punch it in from the 1-yard line. The Rams at this point were up 24-14, but it was a lot of time left and the game didn’t seem out of reach.
The score that would put this game away came on a 3-yard score by senior running back Cedrick Harris.
Palm Beach Lakes would go on to win 31-21 over Forest Hill.
“We are more like brothers we call each other and check on each other,” said Hall, who had an amazing game with three touchdowns (two passing and one rushing).
SIDE NOTE: The Palm Beach Lakes defense also played a major role in this pivotal game. It was led by senior defensive end Cornelius Mann, who seemed to be on every tackle. The Rams unit had an answer for everything the Falcons were trying to do after they settled down.
PROJECTED FHSAA PLAYOFF STANDINGS
The FHSAA points system for all of Florida’s high school football teams will likely be updated tomorrow.
With that said, it seems as if Palm Beach Lakes will now have a clear path to the Class 7A playoffs. This is due to the following factors: a huge win over Forest Hill and the fact that this team scheduled games against Class 5A powerhouse Trinity Christian (Jacksonville), Dwyer, and Pahokee.
On the other hand, Forest Hill will almost certainly be left on the outside looking in this week. Honestly this doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the losses to Palm Beach Lakes and Dwyer. Instead, it’s the out-of-district schedule this year, which includes the regular season finale against winless Spanish River (0-9), Suncoast (3-6; 40-12 win in Week 1), Santaluces (5-4; 27-0 win in Week 2), and John I. Leonard (2-7; 50-14 win in Week 3).
We cannot stress this enough. A team’s out-of-district schedule is everything now, and that’s why we think Palm Beach Lakes will make the playoffs and Forest Hill won’t.
But we could be easily be wrong by finding out (happily!) that both teams end up making the playoffs. We’ll see what happens.
