Plant head coach Robert Weiner knows a thing or two about winning championships. After Plant’s 8A Regional Finals victory over Fort Pierce Central Friday night at Lawnwood Stadium on Florida’s East Coast, Coach Weiner spoke about the attributes of a championship team. Among those characteristics identified by the four-time state champion coach were perseverance and resiliency. A champion, Coach Weiner said, “answers the bell” when the playoffs start. Against the home-team Cobras, the Plant Panthers answered the bell again and again and walked away with a hard-fought 17 – 7 win and the opportunity to host Apopka next Friday night in a match-up of teams that have won the last two 8A State Championships.

Long known for its wide-open offensive style of play, Plant went old-school and played good old-fashioned, smash-mouth, ball-control football. Junior Patrick Brooks carried the load for the Panthers, rushing the ball 22 times for a season-high 132 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown run. Brooks also hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass from teammate Colby Brown. Senior Alex Jackson added another 50 yards on 11 carries and caught two passes of his own for 40 yards. Both backs benefitted from the efforts of a strong offensive line performance, led by seniors Richard Bush, Caperton Ellis, Ben Rowley, Ray Raulerson, Denton Dowell and juniors Jake Fruhmorgen and Ken Purdy.

And when the Plant offense didn’t have the ball, the defense was shutting down Fort Pierce Central’s potent attack. Playing a bend-but-don’t-break game, the defense, led by seniors Andrew Beck and Kyle Henderson, came up big time and time again and held the Cobras to but a single first quarter score.

On a cool, breezy night, the Panthers won the opening toss and elected to receive. The Panthers picked up one first down before the drive stalled, but recovered a fumbled punt for a second life. That life, too, died when Clarke Miller’s 26-yard field goal attempt was pushed by the wind just outside the uprights. The teams exchanged punts, with the Cobras getting the better end of the field position. Taking over at the Plant 41, FPC took advantage of a dubious pass interference call to set up a 2-yard touchdown run from junior running back Billy Jolivert to take a 7-0 lead.

The Cobras looked to build on the lead early in the second quarter, but a 37-yard field goal attempt into the same wind that foiled Plant’s earlier efforts met with the same fate. Again, the teams exchanged short series and punts before Plant took over on its own 35. From there, Jackson and Brooks, with help from junior Jordan Reed, moved the Panthers into Cobra territory at the 30 yard line. On third and long, Brown rolled right and threw a screen pass back to Brooks who ran it in for Plant’s opening score. Miller converted on the extra point and the game was tied 7 – 7.

The Panther defense stood firm and forced and three-and-out possession from the Cobras. From there, Plant managed to run almost all four minutes of the remaining first-half time off the clock, before Miller connected on a 25-yard field goal to give the Panthers a 10 – 7 halftime lead.

The third quarter featured strong defensive efforts from both teams, with short drives ending with punts or a turnover on downs, measurements that required a microscope to determine whether a first down had been made, and booming punts. As the 3rd quarter came to an end, Reed may have made the unsung play of the game when he hung onto a Cobra punt that landed in his hands about a tenth of a second before a Cobra defender made a bone-jarring tackle deep in Panther territory. The Panthers managed to pick up a few yards, but the drive stalled. A partially blocked punt gave the Cobras the ball at midfield. Perseverance and resiliency were put to the test and this time is was junior Derrick Baity that answered the bell, picking off quarterback Sam Vaughn’s pass at the Plant 31 yard line.

A screen pass to Jackson and several runs from Brooks set up Brooks’ 11-yard scamper into the end zone. With just under six minutes remaining in the game, the Panthers had and ten point lead (17 – 7) and full control of the game. Even several of the Cobra faithful had seen enough, as many of the estimated 5,000 plus fans started to head for the exits. A back-and-forth possession by FPC ultimately ended on downs when Austin Hudson wisely knocked down a 4th down pass attempt from Vaughn.

Plant moved the ball downfield, keyed by a 39 yard run from Brooks against a stacked Cobra defense. In so doing, the Panthers ran out the remaining four minutes on the clock. And when the final buzzer went off, Plant had answered the bell once again.

Plant improves to 11-1-1 on the season and will host the 8A semifinal game at Dad’s Stadium Friday night.

– Robert Barnes