The day the Plant City Dolphins and every other Tri-County Youth Football and Cheerleading Conference team worked hard to get to finally came.
Saturday, Nov. 19, was Superbowl day for four Plant City Dolphins teams. Of the group – Pee Wees, Midgets, Junior Varsity and Varsity – only the Midgets were able to leave Bloomingdale High School with a win.
PEE WEES
The first matchup featuring the Dolphins came with a lot of hype: the Lakeland Eagles played the Dolphins at the end of the regular season and took a 14-13 loss, for which the team sought revenge.
Lakeland scored on its first possession of the game, but the Dolphins tied it at 6-6 with a touchdown from Landyn Jackson at the 0:35 mark of the quarter. Neither team's extra-point attempt was successful.
The Eagles' not-so-secret weapon, Anthony Keel, made the day tough for the Plant City defense. Keel put the Eagles ahead in the second quarter with a six-yard rushing touchdown with just over three and a half minutes to go, and sent both teams off the field at the half with a 69-yard run that put Lakeland ahead, 18-6.
Devonte Howard Jr. got things going for Plant City in the third quarter, leading the team on a drive capped by his own rushing touchdown. It also led to the first, and only, successful extra-point attempt of the game, when Howard completed a pass to Preston Cothren to make it an 18-14 game.
The Eagles scored early in the fourth quarter, going up 24-14 with a bubble screen play, but the Dolphins answered with just under three minutes left. Howard punched in a short touchdown to cut the Eagles' lead to four points, but the play gave the Eagles almost three minutes to work with.
Although he didn't score again, Keel iced the game for his team by running the ball, making it into the red zone with just under a minute left, allowing the team to kneel out the rest of the clock and take the 24-20 win.
MIDGETS
The only Dolphins team not to win a Superbowl in 2015 was the only one to win a Superbowl just one year later.
It was the first meeting between the Dolphins and the East Bay Bucs in 2016, and both defenses played hard to set up a scoreless first quarter. Zykee Carpenter scored the first of his three touchdowns with just over three minutes left in the half, and the successful extra point put Plant City ahead, 7-0. Although the Bucs got a drive going afterward, it was ended by Marcus Springfield's interception with 40 seconds left.
Chase Dexter gave Plant City its first solid scoring opportunity of the half with a big run at the 1:29 mark of the third quarter and, after a couple tries with a couple different backs, Carpenter punched in his second touchdown of the night to help give the Dolphins a 13-0 lead.
Plant City's defense was on fire, swarming the Bucs, but made a crucial mistake with 6:51 left to play: a hole in the coverage allowed East Bay's Devin Spencer to break away for a 69-yard touchdown and cut the Bucs' deficit to seven points. The Bucs tied it up four minutes later with another rushing touchdown and a successful extra-point attempt, and the Dolphins started racking up flags.
But Plant City was able to hold on long enough to force overtime, where Carpenter scored his final touchdown on a 20-yard run after a bad snap gave the Dolphins less-than-ideal field position on second down. The defense was able to stuff East Bay's attempts at a touchdown, wrapping up the 20-13 win with a big sack on fourth down.
JUNIOR VARSITY
It wasn't long before the fans were treated to a high-scoring game, though it didn't end well for the Dolphins.
The only matchup of the day between two unbeaten teams started with the Lakeland Hurricanes taking a 6-0 lead at the 5:50 mark of the first quarter, only to be met with a long Plant City rushing touchdown by Idris Williams. And that touchdown was met with a Lakeland kickoff return touchdown, giving the 'Canes a 12-6 lead before the second quarter began.
In all three instances, the PAT attempts were blocked.
Idris Williams struck again early in the second quarter, tying the game at 12-12 with another rushing touchdown followed by another blocked PAT attempt. Two minutes later, Lakeland drove to the Dolphins' three-yard line and hit paydirt with a quarterback sneak. It also featured the fifth (and final) blocked PAT attempt of the game.
The 'Canes converted a fourth-down rushing attempt into a touchdown with two seconds left in the half, going up 24-12, and scored again early in the third quarter to go ahead, 31-12. Plant City did score again shortly afterward, at the 6:38 mark, but Lakeland responded with a four-minute drive and another rushing touchdown.
After some unproductive, back-and-forth exchanges in the fourth quarter, Lakeland scored on a 97-yard run and was met with a Plant City kickoff return for a touchdown. Lakeland scored again a few minutes later, and Plant City scored the final points of the game with 15 seconds left, setting the score at 49-33.
VARSITY
The Pinecrest Pilots' strong ground game proved to be too much for the Varsity Dolphins to handle at the Superbowl, in a rematch of the teams' Week 9 game.
That week, Plant City edged out Pinecrest for a 6-0 win. In the Superbowl, Pinecrest was the team pitching the shutout win, but with a 40-0 score. The Pilots started scoring rushing touchdowns in the second quarter and, aided by pre-snap penalties against the Dolphins, never looked back. The lone exception came as time in the first half expired, when Pinecrest lined up in the shotgun formation and completed a long touchdown pass as the clock ran out, setting the score at 20-0 after three touchdowns.
Pinecrest scored three more touchdowns in the second half, when the Pilots mixed more passing plays into its offense than it had in the first half. The team scored once in the third quarter, making it a 28-0 game, and twice more in the fourth quarter.
The team's final touchdown, a nine-yard rush with 4:25 left in the game, brought about a running clock. The Dolphins tried hard to avoid the shutout, but Pinecrest was able to snag an interception on the final play of the game, right as time expired.