By Dave Brousseau
COCONUT CREEK – It’s become clear that Coconut Creek junior quarterback Josiah Sanchious can lift his team from defeat into victory.
Saturday against Piper in a important game that would determine the District 15-4A champion, the Cougars rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final 8:05 of the fourth quarter.
Sanchious first completed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Francis with 6:39 left, cutting the deficit to three points.
After forcing the Bengals to punt, Creek got the ball back its own 20-yard line with 3:33 to play. The Cougars needed only five plays to complete the comeback as Sanchious threw a 68-yard strike to Everett Butler for the eventual winning touchdown with 1:50 to play for the 27-24 victory.
Sanchious finished with a season-high 274 passing yards.
“This is all about trusting your brother,” said Sanchious. “We know if we start off quick, we’ll be a whole better team. We got to learn how to pick up from our mistakes.”
“I tell our guys that we are battle tested,” said Creek coach Christopher Yeargin. “We work on the two-minute drill every single day. Josiah is one of the best South Florida quarterbacks that no one really talks about.”
This was Sanchious’ second comeback victory over the season after he rallied the Cougars beat True North on the final play of the game for a 33-32 victory on Aug. 28.
Butler, filling in for an injured Sanchious, rallied Creek to a 17-14 victory over Cardinal Gibbons when place-kicker Jonathan Hernandez kicked the game-winning field goal from 34-yards as time expired.
The Bengals seemed in line to pull the upset when D’tyler Marc scored on a 16-yard run to build a 24-14 lead. Marc finished with 98 yards on 21 carries.
Alijah Pessoa, making his first start at quarterback this season on place of injured Maksim Steuber, rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown.
Jonah Julien added a 57-yard fumble return that gave Piper 17-7 lead with 6:03 left in the third quarter after they trailed 7-3 at the half.
“Unfortunately, this is what we have been all year long,” said Piper coach Quentin Short regarding blown leads this season. “We haven’t been able to finish when we’ve had leads. Hats off to Creek in making two big plays.”
The Cougars (8-1, 2-0 in district) will finish the regular season with a home-game against Chaminade-Madonna, the 18th ranked team in the nation.
Piper (5-4, 1-1) will play at Cardinal Gibbons on Friday.
Dave Brousseau is a veteran journalist who worked at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a longtime BCAA Correspondent. Need to reach out to him? Contact him at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.