Silly, silly me. Why in the world would I ever question the defensive prowess of the Armwood Hawks? Well, for starters because I can, but that’s basically where I’ve got to stop myself. Friday Night’s performance by the defense (especially in the 2nd Half) was about as dominant as you could possibly imagine. It’s now time that I serve myself a huge slice of humble pie. Hey, nobody ever gave me the recipe so I’m going to pretend that it’s a quiche and grab my favorite bottle of the spicy stuff and splash in on there. No Prilosec either. I want this to burn. Oh yeah baby. Burn, baby burn.
Which is exactly what Garian Brown and Wade Edwards did on two plays that broke the Panthers backs. The 1st one was literally seconds into the 3rd Quarter on a 96-yard kickoff return, the second coming just four minutes later on the clock on a 77yd middle screen to Wade Edwards who split the Plant Defense and streaked to the endzone. This is the sort of thing that the Hawks did to Jefferson, and to Sickles (the games I’ve seen in person at least). And now come to think of it, this is what happened in the Bishop Gorman game as well. I’d like to give this trend a name since it’s becoming prevalent in the way Armwood seems to be winning. I’d like to call these “bursts” of playmaking the submission sequence.
I’d also like to give the Armwood Defense a nickname as well. There’s enough swag and enough talent to back up the moniker. It just needs to be fitting. I was thinking something blue, but ‘Blue Crush” just doesn’t sound very *cough* manly in my opinion. How about “The Abyss?” As in something that is unfathomable. Something that is so deep it is immeasurable and sure to bring darkness to those that sink into it. I’m serious. There’s grown men (not literally, but you get the point) playing in their front seven. There’s an even better line of defense once you’ve “managed” to get past that point.
Plant was able to move the ball in the 1st Half and even had some Armwood players admitting that their scheme was keeping them slightly off-balance. The Panthers simply couldn’t survive the shots to the feet they sustained on a couple of miscues most notably the Antonio Crawford fumble as Plant was already in field goal range and was at least appearing that they would tie the score at 3 going into the half. The play itself was slightly controversial, but in the end the official wasn’t exactly in the greatest position to see where the defenders body landed versus when he recovered the ball just before it was about to go out of bounds.
None of this mattered much until Armwood started their “submission sequence.” I’ve noticed that in MMA fights there’s a particular sequence of leg kicks or sweeps or something that are setting up a move to get the opponent to the ground where the aggressor’s sheer strength and technique is too much to handle. Thus the grip is made worse the harder the opponent tries to fight. Before you know it, there’s the tap out, or there’s a clear-cut winner established whether the fight goes the distance or not.
This is essentially what Armwood is doing to their opponents. One minute they’re leading by a FG or TD, the next you realize they’re a possession away from entering running clock territory. Then you realize that there’s only 4-5 minutes of actual game clock gone. This didn’t happen to Plant (the running clock threat), but it dang sure could have. Credit to the Panthers for doing what they could, but it’s time to realize this is a special, special group and that they’re slightly ticked off (tongue-in-cheek) about the way things ended last season. It doesn’t appear that Armwood is in the mood for allowing points the rest of the season, much less moral victories. At this point, it’s going to look like a statistical anomaly that Hillsborough put up 18.
Game Balls: Plant
Definitely James Few. The extremely bright QB is very good and is definitely getting better even with tonight’s setback. He will take the Panthers deep into the playoffs. He made some great throws early in the 1st Q finding Austin Aikens and was moving Plant very efficiently before the mistakes began to happen. Give a tip of the cap to RB Wesley Bullock too who was severely limited in yardage, but was not shying away from the hits even with his smallish frame.
Game Balls: Armwood
Where to begin? For starters the entire DL deserves credit. Allen Covington, Sheldon Lewinson, and Lonzel Davis are just the tip of the iceberg. The very few times Plant went vertical there wasn’t much that Jarvis McCall or Leon McQuay weren’t in the immediate vicinity to make a play on. Offensively, it was as a complete of a contribution as you could want. Of course there were the usual suspects Bailey and Matt Jones, but Darryl Richardson looked as sharp as he has all season. D-Rich definitely showed why he’s going to be one of the more sought after QB’s in the country. He still needs to work on his touch though for sure. Just before the half, Alvin Bailey ran a crisp stop-and-go and had the Plant DB by 2 steps. A ball with a slight amount of air underneath it looks like something as easy as a video game. Instead, Richardson tries to thread the needle and it’s simply too tough to make a play on for Alvin. If this is the only problem then so be it. They’ll probably take that. Garian Brown’s KO return was absolutely electric.
Where do they go from here? Both of these teams are going to the postseason and one of them already know who they’ll have in the 1st Rd. Plant gets Bloomingdale then Robinson to finish the regular season which will likely be a matchup of two 8-1 teams. They’ll then await either Boone or Freedom, but most likely Boone and high school’s version of Usain Bolt in Marvin Bracy. Armwood travels to King next week and then they’ll have a bye week 11. They’ll get Lakewood Ranch from Bradenton who lost to Largo and finished as runners-up in that district. MORE PLUS VIDEO HERE