DEERFIELD BEACH – In what was his last regular season home game of his career, “Mr. Deerfield”, Brandon Powell did not disappoint. The five-foot-nine Miami (FL) commit had been looking forward to what he called one of the biggest games he has ever played in and knew what he had to accomplish.
“Being committed to the University of Miami everyone knows that I can make big plays. So that’s what I did tonight. I had to put the team on my back.” said Powell
So that’s exactly what Powell did — He made big plays by rushing for 133 yards on 17 carries. His biggest play of the night though was a 50-yard receiving touchdown with 7:39 left in the game to give Deerfield Beach a 15-7 lead. A lead which they would hold onto for the rest of the night and would win by a final score of 22-7.
Powell also scored on a 30-yard rushing touchdown with 33 seconds left in the 1st half to pull the Deerfield Beach Bucks closer before halftime.
Going into halftime, St. Thomas Aquinas led Deerfield Beach 7-6 after a rain filled first half. The Raiders had scored earlier in the game thanks to a 17-yard rushing touchdown from new Michigan State running back commit, senior Madre London.
The play that swung the momentum permanently for the Bucks was a safety early on in the fourth quarter by Jason Strowbridge as he tackled running back Madre London in the endzone.
For most of the night, the Raiders offense struggled to get any sort of offense going due to poor weather conditions and sloppy quarterback play from senior Wade Freeback. Freeback finished the night 5-of-19 passing the ball with two costly interceptions. The most costly of which came in the 4th quarter when Freeback was picked off late in the game by Bucks defensive back Michael Greene who returned the interception 43-yards which sealed the game for the Bucks.
For the Bucks, it was their first victory over the nationally-ranked Raiders from Fort Lauderdale since 2007. Deerfield Beach head coach Allen Jackson, a Deerfield Beach alum was not apart of that staff however. In his third year with the Bucks, Jackson was proud that his three-year plan had fallen into place.
“We knew if we had the kids for three years, we would be able to do something like this.” said Jackson. “I am just so proud of our guys. These men right here have done a wonderful job. It’s all on them. It’s not me because I’m just the head of it.”
Deerfield Beach (10-0) will face Flanagan (9-1) in the first round of the class 8A playoffs next week at home. St. Thomas Aquinas (8-2) will try and get back into the win column as they are at home and face Miami Springs (7-3) in the first round of the class 7A playoffs.
