By Dave Brousseau - BCAA Writer
SUNRISE – The first play from scrimmage by West Broward senior running back Elijah DeWoskin dictated the eventual outcome for the Bobcats in their Class 6A regional semifinal against Piper on Friday.
The 51-yard touchdown run was the first of his three scores on the night for the four-year varsity play in leading his team to a 35-16 victory.
The second-round playoff victory was the first for West Broward (9-3) since the school opened in 2008. Thus, the Bobcats advance to the regional finals where they will face Miami Southridge, a 20-14 winner over Monarch, next Friday.
The victory was also heart felt due to complications from sophomore running back Amos Bradford who was hospitalized with a serious infection resulting from an injury.
“Our coaches got together and got him to the hospital right away to get him taken care of,” said West Broward coach Brian McCartney. “He’s doing a little better. All the players went to visit him.”
Bradford finished the regular season as the only back to rush over 1,000 yards from a BCAA school.
The Bobcats fed off DeWoskin’s quick score with three more touchdowns in the opening quarter for a 28-0 lead.
“Our boys came of prepared,” said McCartney. “In the first quarter we hit our opponent in the mouth and just got everything rolling.:
“I give the credit to the offensive line,” said DeWoskin. “They did great tonight. We worked four years to get here. We talked about getting past to regional semifinals and it was great that we did it.”
Two plays into the Bobcats second possession, they added another touchdown on a 75-yard pass from Dylan Pelliccio to Amir Sears.
On the first play on the ensuing kickoff, Sears picked off a Bengals pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown for a 21-0 lead.
If that wasn’t hard to handle, Piper’s next possession ended with a blocked punt with West Broward recovering it at the Bengals 13. Three plays later DeWoskin scored from one.
Down 28 points, Piper (10-2) didn’t cave.
The Bengals responded with a 10-play, 65-yard drive on a six-yard run by Kenneth Pierre cutting the Bobcats lead to 28-7. Piper added another touchdown before the first half ended on a 1-yard run by senior quarterback Christian Mata.
“We had guys that had been fighting all year,” said Piper coach Quinton Short. “We were terrible in the first quarter, and you can’t give a team like West Broward 28 points.
I was happy with our guy fighting to get back into the game.”
Suddenly the apparent route was on hold.
Both teams struggled to produce any type of consistent offense in the second half until West Broward retained possession after holding Piper on down with 9:10 left on the fourth quarter.
DeWoskin scored the clinching touchdown on his second 1-yard run with 4:42 to play.
Piper finished the scoring with a late safety.
Dave Brousseau can be reached on X at @dbrouss76 – or via e-mail at:
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