ORLANDO – We said it last night in the 7A write-up and the same applies here–the more things change, the more they stay the same. Miami Central (12-2) took a punch from the Hawks early and then delivered knockout blows to Armwood (14-1) repeatedly en route to a 48-13 victory in the Class 6A state championship at the Citrus Bowl on Saturday afternoon. The Rockets have now won four consecutive titles and join Booker T. Washington along with Live Oak-Suwannee and North Florida Christian for most-consecutive rings won in the history of the playoffs.
The afternoon got off to a glorious start for the Hawks forcing a three-and-out then scoring on their first drive in two plays to take a 6-0 lead. The Hawks were driving on their second possession and then the bottom effectively fell out when Darrien McNeal was stripped by the Central defense and the ball popped into the hands of Allen Jones who spun around and ran 90 yards for a touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, a miscommunication between the kick returners for the Hawks created a chance for Central to jump on the loose ball and cash-in on a short field. The Rockets did just that on a Jerrod Thomas 1-yard rush, and following the extra point–it was 14-6 Central over Armwood without even batting an eyelash.
The snowball turned into an avalanche towards the end of the second quarter when James Cook–freshman running back and little brother of Dalvin Cook–found the end zone from 28 yards out to extend the lead to 21-6. The Hawks had Central stopped after the Rockets had the ball back and were out near midfield, but a Dedarallo Blue unsportsmanlike penalty caused the defense to stay an extra play–and the Rockets made him pay for it. Central QB Jerrod Thomas hit Carmoni Green from 46 yards out–and following a two-point conversion with zeros on the clock, the Rockets took a 29-6 lead into halftime.
The Hawks had more issues on the kickoff at the start of the second half when the ball was jarred loose setting up another short field for Central. James Cook finished the short drive from 6 yards out and the lead for Central was pushed to 35-6 with 10:22 remaining in the third quarter. Cook finished the game with 176 yards on 15 carries and three touchdowns. Erin Collins led the Hawks with 141 yards on just five carries and a touchdown.
Miami Central scored 20 points off Armwood turnovers–the two teams combined for 21 penalties for 152 yards. The 35 point margin of victory puts the total margin of points through the first seven games of the state finals to 200—that’s an average margin of victory of 28.5 points per contest thus far. Armwood’s Tyler Scott and Justin Manning did combine for 33 total tackles in the loss for the Hawks, however.