A heartbreaking end to a great season
12/13/19
Above, senior Tre’von Riggins kneels on the field as his fellow teammates regroup after their heartbreaking loss. (ESSEX POTTS | SNN)
BY ELIJAH JACKSON
SNN Staff Writer
kewood High School football team went into the playoffs undefeated for the second time since 1988. They continued their dominance, beating Clewiston High School and Tampa Catholic but met their match against Booker T. Washington High School, losing 9-7.
Despite the loss, head coach Cory Moore called the season, as a whole, a win for everyone.
“The team set a new standard for not just Lakewood, but the whole community,” he said.
The team beat Clewiston, 35-0, on Nov. 15 in the regional semifinals. Their next game was the regional finals against Tampa Catholic on Nov. 22. Lakewood had no problems with them; the final score was 29-7 as they moved on to the state semi-finals. This win improved their record to 12-0.
Their final game was against Booker T. Washington on Nov. 29. If Lakewood had won, they would have moved on to the state finals. The game was packed, with 1,000 tickets sold before the game started.
“I felt a little nervous, but once I started playing it went away,” senior wide receiver Marques “TJ” Tampa said.
Lakewood’s defense played great, but the offense seemed like they couldn’t get down the field.
“I feel like we shouldn’t have played so conservative and took more shots downfield,” Tampa said after the game.
There were a lot of mistakes that gave Booker T. the advantage, including a blocked punt that gave them a two-point safety and a dropped punt by senior Derreyon Maxwell-Black, which gave the Tornadoes good field position that led to a touchdown.
During the first half, a penalty was called against junior Ka’won Reedy – illegal man downfield – which cost Lakewood a touchdown. After that, Lakewood’s Philip Pierre missed a field goal.
“I don’t think it cost us the game, but it was a mistake,” Reedy said about the penalty called against him.
You can’t win, said junior wide receiver Artez Hooker, if you make too many mistakes.
“We got to do everything right and try to be as perfect as possible,” he said.
The final score was 9-7. This loss lead to an emotional reaction in the locker room after the game.
“The team was heartbroken, a lot of crying, people mad, and sad, a lot of feelings going around,” Tampa said.
“The whole game I thought we were gonna win,” Hooker said. “When it got to about 30 seconds, I realized we were gonna lose.”
Senior Avion Maybell said the most important thing he took away from the last game is “to uplift your players when they’re down.”
“At some points in the game, some players thought that the loss was because of them and they needed encouragement to keep going,” he said.
“It was fun. It felt good that I was on an undefeated high school team,” Reedy said. “We made history no matter what.”
Maybell said he would always remember this season.“The most valuable thing I took from the season was cherishing the moment and the memories of my final season,” he said. “That’s important because in my high school days it would be a good final season to look back on.”
Senior Derrel Kelley had some advice for younger players.
“Take advantage of every practice. Make sure that you still love this game and just continue to play hard and continue to work hard, because once this goes away, you’re going to wish you could take it back and do it all over again,” he said.
- SNN Staff Writers ROHEY BARROW and LEAH BROADNAX contributed to this story.