Marcus Benjamin @_benjaminmoney
Hollywood, FL – At the two minute mark in the fourth quarter, the Deerfield Beach Bucks faced a must get third down in a three point game. Failure to convert would force the road team to give the ball back to the opponent with the opportunity to win or tie. Head Coach Jevon Glenn decided to put the ball in the hands of his quarterback DeRohn King.
“I knew coach had trust in me when he called that play,” said King. “At first he called another play, a pass play, but then he called the play that we ran. When we ran that play I knew he had trust in me and I knew I had to get the first down.”
The play was a designed quarterback keeper that King darted for the first down marker and converted to seal the victory. The ‘Beach Boys’ from 8A made a statement on Friday night with a 13-10 win over 3A state champion Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood). This was Chaminade’s first game under Friday night lights as the school recently installed lights at Vince Zappone Field. The Bucks defense came up big for Deerfield making key plays in critical moments.
“We hang our hat on our defense and its been that way for years,” said Coach Glenn. “We have some big time players over there especially in that front seven. We don’t want to put too much pressure on them night in and night out, but you got to give a lot credit to Chaminade the way they played.”
Deerfield jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with an explosive 65-yard run by Oklahoma commit Jaylan Knighton.
Sixty-five yard dash by @jaylan_knighton puts the @DB_BucksFB up on @Nadeboyz Deerfield – 7 Chaminade – 0 at 4:21 mark in 1st qtr. @FootballHotbed pic.twitter.com/Z02pt3fcal
— Marcus Benjamin (@_BenjaminMoney) August 24, 2018
Chaminade would follow with a field goal to close the gap 7-3, but the Lion offense struggled to get in a rhythm all game. At the one minute mark before halftime, the home team attempted to drive down the field for a score. Chaminade quarterback Daelen Menard threw the ball over the middle and Tyron Herring, who also serves as the backup quarterback, dove and caught it for the interception.
“Tyron is one of the most selfless kids I’ve ever been around,” said Coach Glenn. “He was in a heated battle with DeRohn for the starting quarterback job. He hadn’t lost the job but came into my office and said, ‘Coach, DeRohn has a chance to be great. He’s going to be better than me if he’s not now, but if we give him more time at the quarterback position I think he can lead us to a championship.’ He chose to step back went over and competed for a starting job on the defensive side of the ball. He’s a team guy, a ‘we’ guy.”
On the very next play King lofted a perfectly thrown deep ball to Deajaun McDougle for a 30-yard touchdown which would eventually serve as the game winning score.
After the halftime break there were a calamity of errors by both squads. Chaminade would muff the second half kickoff that was recovered by the Bucks. Ahmad Jordan intercepted the Bucks on that same possession, but Jordan would fumble the ball on the run back that was recovered by Deerfield. Zero points resulted in the back and fourth exchange of the football, but perhaps these errors were building up to the worst error of the game. Chaminade punted the ball over to Deerfield and the ball bounced to the one yard line. Just as the Lions were going to down the ball, a Deerfield player inexplicably purposely touched the football and the Lions recovered the ball at the one yard line. After three downs, Chaminade failed to move the ball forward and were faced with a fourth down. They turned to their play-maker Thaddius Franklin Jr. who got into the end zone for the Lions to score the only touchdown of the game for Chaminade.
The Lions gained momentum with the score, but failed to build off of the turn of events. FAU commit Marcus LaFrance came up with a huge interception against Penn State commit John Dunmore at the goal line and Jamarius Landers got a timely sack on a third down that shut down potential go ahead Lion drives.
“We got dogs at each level,” said Coach Glenn. “If we keep doing the little things right, we have a chance to be special.”
Deerfield takes on Georgia power programs in consecutive weeks. They travel to Buford next week and then take on Westlake (Atlanta) at home. Chaminade will also travel next week to take on Alabama power Muscle Shoals.
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