Miami Central Unable To Repeat

The Miami Central Rockets were looking to repeat as Class 6A state champions, however it didn't happen as they lost to the nationally-ranked Seffner-Armwood Hawks 40-31 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Saturday. Armwood(15-0), who lost the 4A state title last year against Tallahassee-Lincoln, won their first state title since 2004. Central had their 27-game winning streak snapped. Even though they were defeated by Camden County of Georgia in 2010, the last time they lost a game against a Florida high school was against Miramar in the state semifinals in 2009. Parkland-Douglas transfer and Central quarterback Austin Stock had a horrible first quarter as his first pass was intercepted by Jarvis McCall and returned 56 yards for a touchdown at 10:47. Armwood followed with a 27-yard field goal by Nick Feeley at 5:23. Three plays later, Stock was picked off again and Leon McQuay brought the ball back 32 yards for the score at 3:51 making it 16-0. Miami Central(13-1) bounced back with 14 points in the second quarter. Dalvin Cook went up the middle with a 63-yard run at 7:14 and Joseph Yearly bowled in on their next possession on a seven-yard run at 1:56. The Hawks capitalized on a Central fumbled turnover on the second play of the third quarter. On their first play, Alvin Bailey found Wade Edwards wide open down the left sideline with a 32-yard touchdown pass. The Rockets responded with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Cook 14 seconds later. Armwood finished the quarter up 30-21 at 1:41 with a running back pass option by Javonte Sneed who threw the ball across the field 19 yards to Bailey. In the fourth quarter, Central's Emilio Nadelman kicked a 36-yard field goal at 8:04 to close the gap. On the first play of the following drive for Armwood, Matt Jones pulled in an 80-yard touchdown catch from Bailey to increase their lead to 37-24. Yearly put in his second touchdown run for the Rockets with five minutes remaining. Although the Rockets were down 37-31 with under two minutes remaining, they failed on the decisive possession as Central went four-and-out. The final play was a quarterback sack by Oklahoma commitment Eric Striker. The Hawks put the game out of reach on a 43 yard field goal by Nick Feeley with 0:31 remaining. Armwood will most likely finish either second or third in all national high school football prep polls when they are released.