The Season Is Not Over
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
October 28, 2003

All summer we heard about how good the Carol City Chiefs were and that they were the best football team in Florida. 

Northwestern showed us in emphatic fashion that is not the case after the Bulls completed a 19-0 drubbing Saturday night at Pro Player Stadium before a crowd of 30,000 plus.

Both teams came in at 7-0 with the Chiefs ranked #1 in the state and the Bulls ranked #2.

It is clear-cut, at least for now, that those rankings were a big time mistake and the Bulls are the best team in the state. As far as being the #2 team in the state, Carol City probably will not have to worry about being ranked there either.

So what is next for Carol City?

With the win, Northwestern clinched the District 9-6A championship. The Bulls still have to play Central this Friday, but that game means a lot more to Central than it does to Northwestern as the Rockets are still fighting for their playoff lives, and need to win out to have any real hope of earning a Wild Card berth.

On the other hand, Carol City, now 7-1 overall and 3-1 in the district take on a big task when they meet up with North Miami Beach at Traz Powell Stadium this Thursday.

The Chargers are 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the district. NMB and Carol City have one thing in common. They both lost to Northwestern, however, at least the Chargers put up a fight, actually leading the Bulls 14-10 at the half.  They also had to deal with a Bulls team that had Terry Perry in the lineup. He ate the Chargers up for over 200 yards rushing. The Chiefs, on the other hand, took a beat down from Northwestern for the third year in a row, and Perry was not even in the lineup.

NMB coach Jeff Bertani told me his team simply ran out of gas against Northwestern so that will be the best way for Carol City to attack NMB. Pound the ball on the ground and hope the Chargers run out of gas.

Don’t count on that though.

Adrenalin alone should be enough to get the undersized Chargers through this big-time game.

Besides the fact that both teams lost to the Bulls, the reality is these two teams are complete opposites and NMB is a complete opposite of Northwestern. NMB relies more on a finesse passing game led by quarterback E.J. Biggers whose favorite target is one of Dade’s top receivers, Schneider Julien. At the same time, the Chargers do have a pretty good running attack with Dwayne Harrison and Johnny Gray in the backfield.

The winner of this game will be the district runner-up and will clinch a playoff berth. The loser has to hope to get in as a Wild Card, which is never a guarantee, since teams are not only dealing with teams in their district, but teams in two other districts as well.

A state championship was what the Chiefs saw when this season started. Although unlikely, a loss could have the Chiefs looking from the outside in when the playoffs begin. Carol City will probably make the playoffs as a Wild Card with a loss, but a season that looked so promising could turn into a disaster if they are not ready to play at 7:30 this Thursday at Traz Powell against NMB win what is now the Game of the Year for them.