By Dave Brousseau

PLANTATION – Plantation High football coach Darrell Strong felt confident about his teams’ chances going for a two-point conversion with 36.7 seconds left in regulation against Miami Norland.

His team had rallied from a 14-point deficit on a 53-yard touchdown run by quarterback Zakari Johnson with 3:12 left in regulation and a Johnson eight-yard toss to Desmond Christian.

A two-point conversion pass failed allowing the Vikings to hold onto a 35-34 victory at PAL Field on Friday.

“I liked out odds going for two points, feeling the ball was in our hands,” said Strong. “I made the decision to go for two.

After losing tonight we don’t control our destiny. Now we’ll get ready for South Plantation and see how things fall.”

Had the Colonels (5-4, 1-2) won they would have forced a tie with Archbishop McCarthy and American Heritage in District 15-4A play. The Vikings (5-5, 1-2) victory would likely keep them in place for the final spot for a regional quarterfinal game in two weeks.

The Vikings deciding touchdown came with some trickery with 3:54 left in the third quarter.

Junior quarterback Kai Moore tossed a backwards pass to sophomore wide receiver Armani Strong, who threw a deep pass to a wide-open Jaden Daniels for a 64-yard touchdown that gave Norland a 35-21 lead.

“This was a big win for us,” said Norland coach Horane Allison. “This was a program changing win. We made the change on Monday as far as the head coach goes. Because of that we had to reestablish ourselves as Norland High as we know ourselves to be.”

Moore finished his night with 267 yards passings, completing 22 of 27 attempts.

The Vikings had trailed 21-14 at the half before scoring 21 points in the third quarter.

They tied the score at 21 on the opening possession of the third quarter following a Kevin Peeples four-yard run. That was followed by an 80-yard punt return by Pepples.

Norland took the lead at 7-0 with 5:34 left in the opening quarter following a 28-yard scoring pass from Moore to running back Maurice Clark for a 7-0 lead.

Plantation answered on its following possession as Johnson connected with Christian for an 11-yard scoring pass with 36.4 seconds left in the first quarter. The point after was blocked.

Norland regained the lead on a 1-yard run through the center of the offensive line by Rashad Wallace for a 14-6 lead.

The Colonels rallied with pair of touchdowns before the half as Johnson scored a 22-yard run and Jemari Foreman returned an interception 80 yards with 31.4 seconds left for a 21-14 lead at the break.

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.