Marcus Benjamin @_benjaminmoney
Homestead, FL – For the second consecutive year Adidas held its East Coast Invitational seven on seven tournament in South Florida. Teams from Chicago, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and Florida competed in the tournament held at Harris Field. The Rat Pak, based out of Orlando defeated South Florida Express 16-15 in the tournament final in thrilling fashion with the go ahead score coming with less than a minute to play.
“We had that same situation last week,” said proud head coach Keiwan Ratliff, commonly known as Coach Rat. “Fast Houston had a 14-7 lead on us. We had three trips in the redzone and came away with zero points and that hurt. We had a conversation with our quarterback Spencer Fetter. Today he came out and put everything together and put together a spectacular performance especially on that last two minute drive.”
Fetter, Trinity Prep (Winter Park, FL), found Tyrone Davis (Winter Park, FL) in the corner of the endzone for the go ahead score. The 2019 prospects went to their bread and butter on this play where Fetter read the corner for the conversion.
“It’s like our favorite concept with two digs in the corner,” said Fetter. “I gotta read the corner and he bit on the dig and he was wide open.”
With under thirty seconds left Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale) and South Florida Express quarterback Nik Scalzo still had a chance to lead his team to a stunning victory. Scalzo would hit Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) receiver John Dunmore over the middle that would get them to the five yard line with about five seconds remaining. Anxious to get the next play off in time, the ball was snapped before all players were set which would lead to a fall start penalty that would ultimately end the game. Coach Rat credits team unity for the grind it out victory and first tournament title of the season.
“These boys finally believed in each other. When you have teams like this it’s a lot of individuals. Guys coming from different schools where they’re the man. First tournament, we had a little chemistry but you can tell there was a lot of individualism. Second tournament, we won games but you can tell it was still guys doing their own thing. In this tournament, you can see guys on the sideline cheering when their brother gets a touchdown. Defense yelling when the offense was on the field. When they are all locked in like that, we can play with anybody.”
There was plenty of talent on all levels of the field turf at Harris. Former Miami Hurricane tight ends Jimmy Graham and David Njoku were present and talking to the young men with every opportunity. Njoku celebrated with the young players taking photos and dancing after touchdowns.
“This is fun for me,” said Njoku. “I love being out here with these guys.”
A player seeming to be beyond his years was EPS Blaze quarterback from Ponchatula (Louisiana) TJ Finley. The 6’5 190 pound quarterback is only 15 years old and is going into his junior season. His team fell short in the tournament to South Florida Express in the semifinals but credits seven on sevens to his fast track development.
“As a quarterback, I’m seeing different schemes and complex defenses,” said Finley. “Cover 2 on one side and man on the other. It’s really getting my mind sharper for the next level.”
Finley has offers from Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss and most recently from Louisville just two weeks ago. LSU also offered the young talent and currently sits as the favorite.
Tournament champions Rat Pak will aim to continue their top tier performance at the Air 5 tournament in Bradenton, FL next week.
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