Quarterback De’Kwan Bradley accounted for five touchdowns, and Perry Garrett ran for 72 yards and caught four passes for 104 yards as the Poinciana Eagles ended 14 years of futility with a 56-0 win over Liberty in the 15th edition of the Battle of the Boulevard.
“Part of me wishes the game would have been more competitive, but between being an assistant and a head coach I have been on the short end of eight of these games previously. Many of those games also had ugly scores, so I am not apologizing for giving this one back,” Eagles Coach Randy Beeken said. “It really feels great to get the monkey off of the collective backs of our players, coaches and students.”
The win was record setting for several reasons. It was the most points by far that Poinciana has ever scored in the series, dating back to a 64-34 loss in 2012. It set a record for the largest margin of victory by either team in the series, topping a 48-0 Liberty win last year. But more importantly for Beeken and his team, it pushed their season record to 8-2 – the most wins in school history and only the second winning season in the school’s 31-year history.
“We had a rough year last year and had all sorts of issues with attitudes and players quitting,” Beeken said. “This year has been a joy to coach. These kids worked hard and pulled together as one and that work has paid off.”
As an independent, Poinciana is not eligible for a playoff spot but will host St. Cloud in a Bowl Game at 6 p.m. Wednesday night. he Bulldogs are 6-4 on the season after dropping a 44-0 decision to Harmony in the Soldier City Classic on Friday.
“They have some really talented players and this bowl game will give us another opportunity at a couple more firsts,” Beeken added. “It will give us an opportunity to win a ninth game on the season and will give us a chance to beat another team that we have never defeated before.”
The teams last met in 2010, where St. Cloud recorded a 40-6 win.
In the Liberty game, Poinciana jumped on top early – taking the opening kickoff and needing just two plays to make it 8-0. After recovering a squib kick, Garrett busted a 32-yard run on a reverse on the first play of the game and Dav’rell Cohn covered the final 13 yards on the next play for a touchdown.
Liberty would answer with what would be their best drive of the game, taking the ball from their own 46 down to the Poinciana 34 – but would end up turning the ball over on downs. Seven plays later, Bradley hit Donald Cummings on a 30-yard pass to up the lead to 14-0. Cohn would tack on a 20-yard scoring run on the final play of the first quarter and the Eagles were flying off to a 20-0 lead.
The second quarter was more of the first. Poinciana would recover an onsides kick to start the second half and four plays later Bradley would hit Garrett on a 14-yard scoring play. A 56-yard scoring pass to Garrett was called back for a block in the back on the next Poinciana series, but the play still went for 36 yards after the mark-off and just delayed the inevitable as Bradley eventually threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Ernest Nunn.
Bradley would add two more touchdown passes of 12 and 50 yards to senior Michael Centeno and would run one in from the two to cap the scoring late in the fourth quarter. For the game, Bradley was 13 of 15 for 149 yards. Centeno had 67 yards receiving and two scores; while Cohn had 54 yards rushing and two scores on just five carries.
“This is my fourth year here and I am so happy to be a part of the first Poinciana team to beat Liberty,” senior linebacker Luis Sorto says. “They can never take that away from us and hopefully we will be starting a streak of our own.”
