Jensen Beach's furious rally falls short in Region 4-4A loss to McArthur
· Yahoo Sports
JENSEN BEACH – Sylvester Brinkley carried the ball from the endzone through the post-game handshake line.
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The Jensen Beach High senior wide receiver insisted he caught the bomb from Dre Lott that would have brought the Falcons to within a point.
“Yes,” Brinkley said emphatically.
The referees, who had an active evening, disagreed.
Jensen Beach dropped the Class 4A-Region 4 quarterfinal to visiting McArthur High out of Hollywood, 21-14, Friday night at the Bird Cage.
Falcons coach Tim Caffey agreed with Brinkley.
“He did,” Caffey said. “But you can’t leave things up to … If you take care of your responsibility early, you don’t have to worry about something like that. Let’s put it that way.”
Mounting a comeback
Sixth-seeded Jensen Beach (8-3) trailed the third-seeded Mustangs, 21-0, midway through the fourth quarter when McArthur (4-7) looked to increase its margin.
The Mustangs’ 40-yard field goal attempt was blocked by the middle of the line. Junior defensive back Jai’yis Wesley picked up the loose ball and went 75 yards to paydirt to give the Falcons a pulse.
“The next thing you know, they are biting their nails and teeth and going, we need to stop them,” Caffey said. “That’s what you want to do: Give yourself a fighting chance at the end. We did. We just didn’t pull it out.”
Jensen Beach’s defense then rose to the occasion again, stopping McArthur on a three-and-out to force a punt.
The Falcons took over at their own 15-yard line with 5 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in regulation.
Caffey disregarded the plays that he thought would work coming into the game and went with what he thought would work after watching the Mustangs’ defense.
The Falcons went on their best drive of the game.
Lott hit nine straight passes and went 11-for-14 in the march. On a fourth-and-goal situation from 7 yards out, the junior quarterback took it in for a touchdown. Damion Heissenberg’s PAT kick made it a 21-14 game with 14 seconds left.
“It was our best drive of the game,” Caffey said. “There were some things we needed to do. We had to get away from the play-call sheet and go by what we saw. And sometimes you have to do that, make the adjustment.”
Things really became interesting when senior linebacker Cason Sweeney recovered the onside kick for Jensen Beach.
Starting at its own 49-yard line with 12.1 seconds remaining, Lott hit junior Gage Wilson for a 4-yard gain. Wilson got out of bounds to stop the clock and set up one more play.
Lott heaved the ball nearly 60 yards to the end zone where a group of seven players converged. Brinkley claims he came down with the ball that was later knocked away by a McArthur defender ending the Falcons’ frantic and furious comeback.
Jensen Beach had a total of 61 yards through the first three quarters before getting 85 on its penultimate possession.
“We had too many mistakes,” Caffey said. “We imploded.”
Flag night
The teams combined for a whopping 40 accepted penalties for a total of 275 yards marked off.
Jensen Beach was penalized 21 times for 108 yards; the Mustangs’ 19 times for 167 yards.
McArthur’s Jennings Pierre-Saint picked off Lott on a tipped ball on the Falcons’ first possession leading to the opening score.
The Mustangs went 69 yards in a penalty-filled drive that ended with Antron Branch’s 1-yard score.
Following a pick by senior Jalen Webley midway through the second quarter, the Falcons got down to the McArthur 2. Caffey elected not to kick a field goal, and Tommy Neloms stopped Alex Thornton for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal.
“I had a bonehead decision. I probably should have taken the three, not that it would have made a difference later on,” Caffey said. “But I probably should have taken the three.
“We were thinking we could score. We had a mistake in understanding in what we needed to do offensively. And when we finally figured it out, we ran out of time.”
McArthur, which played the fourth-toughest schedule in the state, got two quick touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 21-0 advantage.
Branch had his second score, a run from 5 yards out. Jackson Stroud, who had a touchdown to Ratavion McCreed nullified in the second quarter because of a penalty, hooked up with McCreed for an 80-yarder that counted.
“Helluva job by McArthur. They did a heckuva job,” Caffey said. “They hit some long throws on us. That’s pretty much it.”
McArthur, which lost to Mandarin, Cardinal Gibbons, Dillard, Norland, St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaminade Madonna and American Heritage-Plantation – teams that went a combined 50-19 – during the regular season, had 57 yards in the first half and 153 for the game, 18 on the ground.
“Our defense played its best,” Caffey said. “We had a lack of understanding of what we needed to do in the process. And it was both sides of the ball.” Jensen Beach suffered its first home loss in seven games this season
“The wins are on the kids; the losses are on me,” Caffey said
17 Falcons graduate
Jensen Beach lists 17 seniors on its roster.
“It was tough,” Caffey said. “I hated it for some of our seniors, like Alex Thornton and Sylvester Brinkley, kids who have been with me. It’s emotional, man.”
Those seniors have gone to the postseason all four years and won three district championships and county championships.
“So they’ve done a helluva job,” Caffey said. “I hate for them to lose this way. But it’s typical Jensen Beach. They are going to fight to the end. They are giving us a fighting chance at the end to think we can pull it out. It didn’t happen and we have to move on.
“But here’s what I’ll tell ya, those kids over there are going to give you everything they’ve got. And that’s going to go way, way deep in life with that, knowing that I can battle no matter what the circumstances are.”
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Jensen Beach's furious rally falls short in Region 4-4A loss to McArthur