Football is often a complicated sport, especially when it comes to playoff scenarios.
But Friday night, the situation was simple: the winner of the game between Pinellas Park and Countryside would earn a postseason spot as the runner-up in Class 7A District 9, and the loser would be on the outside looking in when districts begin in two weeks.
In a game that featured very little offense and plenty of missed opportunities for both teams, Pinellas Park used a stout defense and a couple of trick plays, including a wide receiver option pass that went for the winning touchdown, to beat the host Cougars, 10-6, and advance to the postseason for the fourth straight year.
“These kids are very hard-headed in every thing they do. That’s the way my kids are,” an emotional Patriots head coach Kenny Crawford said afterwards.
“Maybe it’s a reflection of their coach, I don’t know,” he added. “But being hard-headed made for a good night tonight, because they weren’t going to give up tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of these kids right now.”
It was fitting that the game was played on Halloween, because for the majority of the night, both offenses were downright scary.
The two teams combined for less than 370 total yards, punted 8 times, turned the ball over on downs three times, and missed an extra point and a field goal.
Countryside (7-2, 3-2) got on the board first, thanks to a 27-yard scoring pass from Trent Chmelik (3-15, 50 yds, TD, INT) to Gio Gonzalez with 3:23 to go in the first quarter. The point-after was missed.
But despite mounting a couple of long sustained drives in the first half, Pinellas Park (7-2, 4-1) was only able to put three points on the board, as Marco Manlovik kicked a 20-yard field goal at the halftime buzzer to make it 6-3 Countryside at the break.
After missing a 20-yard field goal to start the fourth quarter that would’ve tied the game at six, Crawford decided to dig into his bag of tricks and let senior wide receiver Marcellus Ware take over.
Ware had a huge game last week in a blowout loss to 7A-9 champ East Lake and already had grabbed an interception and thrown a 40-yard completion earlier in the half.
But the kid known for his shifty legs and athletic ability saved his best play for last.
After receiving the ball at their own 42 with less than five minutes to play in the game, Pinellas Park was faced with a 3rd and 16 from its own 36 and looking at a crushing defeat.
But Ware (107 tot yds, TD pass) surprised the Cougars by taking the handoff and dropping back to pass, hitting a wide-open Jalil Crapps for a 27-yard touchdown that wound up being the winning score.
“I was a little nervous when we were down in the second half, and I knew I had to make plays and do something to get us back in the lead,” Ware explained.
“The coaches had us practice that play this week, and I was just praying I got it over the top, and it worked.”
Crawford was quick to praise not only Ware, but also his coaches on both sides of the ball for pulling out the win.
“Marcellus is wild, he just makes plays,” he said. “He’s like a kid in the sandlot. All he wants is the ball in his hand, and he never wants to stop playing.”
“And hats off to Sean Austin for putting that trick play in, and Bob Celeste and Keith Powers, those guys do a lights out job with the defense,” he said. “I don’t do hardly anything.”
After the emotion of the victory died down a bit, Crawford took time to reflect on what the game means to the program.
“Every win gets me fired up, because it seems like it was just yesterday we were trying to prove we could play at P-Park, and now we’re going into our fourth year in the row in the playoffs, which is incredible."