EF’s touchdown on last play of 1st half keys victory over Southmoreland

By: Jeremy Sellew
Friday, October 23, 2020 | 10:22 PM

Previous Next

When Southmoreland scored a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining in the first half to pull within one of conference champion Elizabeth Forward, the Warriors could have been content to take the slim lead to the locker room.

“That’s not my style,” coach Mike Collodi said with a big smile.

Warriors quarterback Zion White took the snap, pump faked to his left where three receivers were on routes, then uncorked a deep pass across the middle to Zach Boyd. Boyd did the rest, racing 80 yards for a touchdown as the clock hit zeroes.

That sprung the Warriors to a 35-19 victory in a Class 3A Interstate Conference game Friday night.

As high as the Scotties were before the play, they came crashing down after that.

“Looking back, maybe I should have called a timeout when I saw the empty set,” Scotties coach Dave Keefer said. “That’s on me a little bit there. We had Cover-4 there and they made a play.”

The story for the Warriors, though, was White. The third quarterback on the EF depth chart, the sophomore made quite the impression in his first varsity start, finishing 7 of 13 for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Boyd caught two of those for 123 yards.

“You know, Vern (Settles) was a little banged up, and he didn’t practice Wednesday. So just like when Evan (Lewis) went down, it’s next man up,” Collodi said.

Even Keefer didn’t see it coming.

“That was a great calculated move by Mike,” Keefer said. “I’ve never seen that kid before, and, obviously, he can sling it. He’s a good, young quarterback.”

The Warriors opened the scoring with 4 minutes, 52 seconds to go in the first quarter when Zach Boyd took an end-around 12 yards for a touchdown.

But the Scotties responded with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Zach Cernuto to Anthony Govern to tie the score at 7-7.

The teams exchanged possessions until late in the second when White finished off a 10-play, 55-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7.

Southmoreland wasn’t up for letting the clock run out either as Cernuto needed only three completions, the last an 18-yard scoring strike to Mason Basinger just before the devastating last-second EF score.

Cernuto finished 19 of 35 for 196 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

“He’s one of those seniors that went winless when I took over. They gave me three great years, and they set a standard for years to come at Southmoreland,” Keefer said. “I couldn’t be more proud of those guys.”

After holding EF to a punt on the opening drive of the second half, the Scotties were driving until Cernuto was picked off by Settles. Nine plays later, DaVontay Brownfield barreled his way into the end zone from 2 yards to make it 28-13 after Andrew Smith’s extra point. Just before the score, Brownfield converted a third-and-20 with a 53-yard run.

The Warriors forced a punt on the ensuing Scotties possession and made it 35-13 when White hit Brownfield on a 56-yard catch-and-run for the final EF touchdown.

“The last two conference titles we had, we had to share them,” Collodi said. “This season, these seniors, we can say it’s ours outright. That’s what it’s all about.”

The Scotties got a late score when Cernuto hit Govern with a 21-yard touchdown with 4:01 remaining.

“We’re so excited to get to host a playoff game next week as an outright conference champ,” Collodi said. “These players deserve it, and this community deserves it. We couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Watch an archived broadcast of this game on Trib HSSN.

Tags: Elizabeth Forward, Southmoreland