There Must be a Curse
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
October 23, 2003

People who thought “The Curse” only existed in Boston and Chicago were wrong. It exists at Braddock as well. But the Bulldogs Steve Bartman and a goat are contact lenses and a kicker returner.

 

The Bulldogs (5-3, 2-1) had everything go wrong on a night they needed everything to go right as they failed to clinch their first playoff berth since 1995 falling 28-14 to Coral Gables (4-4, 2-1) before 1,000 at FIU Stadium.

 

After Braddock marched 50 yards on a 17-play drive that ate up 7:25 in the second quarter to tie the scored at 7, instead of squib kicking or kicking the ball out of bounds, the Bulldogs made a huge mistake. With only 15 seconds to play in the half, they kicked to Coral Gables’ Davin Walker. He brought it back 85 yards for a touchdown bringing taking all the momentum away from Braddock.

 

“We worked all week on kicking the ball out of bounds,” Braddock coach Frank Rojas said. “I asked our kicker do you know (Coral Gables coach) Joe Montoya. He said why. I said because I was wondering if he asked you to kick it to Walker and then he did it again in the second half.”

 

If that was not bad enough for the Bulldogs, star running back Peter Medrano was limited to 9 carries in the first half for only 21 yards, mainly because he could not see the ball or the holes he needed to run through.

 

The reason?

 

His contacts fell out early in the half. The loss of Medrano hurt the Bulldogs dearly because outside of the long drive in the second quarter, they could not move the ball. Medrano finished with 28 carries for 97 yards after his brother brought him a new pair at halftime, but the damage was done.

 

“The Curse” continued in the second half on behalf of another kicking miscue, this time by the punter.

 

After stalling on its first possession, the Bulldogs were forced to punt. Instead of kicking away from Walker, they fed him more dinner. He returned it 50 yards to the Braddock 12-yard line. On the next play he caught a 12-yard touchdown from J.C. Garrido to give Gables a 21-7 lead.

 

“What can I say about Davin Walker?” Montoya said. “He’s an incredible athlete. I really can’t believe they kicked him the ball. This was a huge win for us.”

 

The Cavaliers were led by their running attack on this night, but not by starting running back Darren Johnson. He was out with a foot injury. In stepped Xavier Thomas who rushed 23 times for 187 yards and a touchdown. The 5’5” 140 pound Thomas made would be tacklers miss all night long.

 

“He’s another one of our great athletes,” Montoya said of Thomas. “He stepped in and did a great job.”

 

The stage is set for next week. If Gables beats Miami High next week, it will clinch at least a three-way first place tie if Braddock beats Columbus next week. If Braddock loses to Columbus, the Explorers will be the district champs and Gables will be the runner-up and “The Curse” will continue for the Bulldogs who have only made the playoffs once in school history.

 

“The job is simple. We have to beat Columbus next week,” Rojas said.