Broward Pounds Dade Behind Chaminade's Beason
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
January 20, 2003

Behind the bruising ground attack of Chaminade's Jon Beason, who rushed 20 times for 160 yards and 2 TDs, Broward steamrolled its way to a 26-16 win over Dade in 6th Annual Dade/Broward All-Star Game at Lockhart Stadium before 5,000.

Early on it was a game with a lot of emotion as the hits were hard, the trash talking was flowing and the crowd was wild as Dade opened up a 7-0 lead in the 1st on an 8-yard touchdown pass by Central's Courtney Denson to Northwestern's Maurice Wright, but that lead was short-lived as Broward pounded the ball on an 11-play 72-yard drive that featured 5 straight runs by Beason to bring the ball to Dade 1-yard line where it was punched in on a dive by Hollywood Hills QB Jason Davis to tie it. Beason rushed for 45 yards on the drive.

Two plays later, Johnathan Edwards intercepted a Robert Spence pass and Broward had the ball at the Dade 45-yard line and three plays after that Beason took the ball off-tackle for a 37-yard touchdown run to give Broward a 14-7 lead it would never relinquish.

Dade was able to come back with a field goal by Homestead's Carlos Davalos after Spence hit Norland's Dwayne Bowe for a 25-yard gain and Killian's Chris Harzinski for 28 yards to the Broward 2-yard line with 3 seconds to play in the half.

But the 2nd half was all Broward behind the power of Beason and Cardinal Gibbons' Sam Dorvil and the speed of McArthur's David Robinson.

Three second half turnovers by Dade on 2 fumbles and an interception by Glenn Cook allowed the Broward offense to pound the worn-out Dade defense the entire half.

Down 17-10 though in the 4th, Dade had an opportunity to get back in the game after Central's Chevin Pace recovered a Broward fumble at the Dade 15-yard line, but on the next play Denson was intercepted by Chaminade's Glenn Cook at the 15-yard line. Two plays later, Beason found the endzone again on an 11-yard run for a 23-10 lead. St. Thomas' Jay Ottovegio hit 2 field goals, including a 40-yarder to give Broward a 26-10 lead late in the game.

Dade finally cracked the scoreboard on a 10-yard pass from Spence to Harzinski with a minute to play.

Spence led Dade passers going 5 for 9 for 152 yards and Denson led the ground attack on QB scrambles rushing for 103 yards on 5 carries.

Trying to exploit having an explosive crew of receivers, Dade went out of a shot gun set with 4 and 5 receivers all game, and only rushed the ball 7 times with it's running backs who had almost 6,000 yards combined this season in Jerry Seymour, Andrew Audelin and William Manley. It cost them in this one and Broward power remains as they upped their series lead to 4-2.

From the Editor: On a side note, punter Christian Koegel from Deerfield Beach put on a punting display better than I have personally ever seen out of any high school punter. His punt late in the 2nd quarter may have saved Broward from disaster after the ball was snapped over his head into the end zone. He managed to scoop the ball up and still get the punt off, then getting drilled by a Dade player. The punt flew in the air from the back of the endzone to the Dade 45. That's a good 60 yards in the air. His kicking ability will surely come in good use to any college that gives him a scholarship. Heck, the Dolphins need a punter. They should sign him. He could very well be punting on Sunday's in four or five years. Great job Christian.