North Junior Midgets to play for championship
When the North Fort Myers Pop Warner Junior Midget football team played Clewiston in the regular season, it held the halftime lead, then gave up 38 second-half points.
During the semifinals of the Peace River Conference Division 2 playoffs at Page Field in Fort Myers on Saturday, the Red Knights again found themselves ahead at the half, and again gave up the lead in the third quarter.
But the Knights held the ball for almost the entire fourth quarter.
Cooper Moses scored with 3:39 left in the game and Jaiden Brown converted the two-point conversion to provide the difference in a 16-14 win.
The No. 3 seed, North Fort Myers will play No. 4 seed Fort Myers, which upset top-seeded North Port, at the Community Park on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Knights coach Christopher Reeves admitted remembering Week 5 and was nervous about a repeat.
“I’m proud of our coaching staff and kids because we didn’t allow what happened last time. We tell these kids if they want to play at the next level they need to man up,” Reeves said. “That team was much bigger and more talented than us, but discipline and coaching overcame that.”
Trailing 8-0 at halftime, Clewiston stormed back. Tyreek Merit scored on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to tie the game after he converted the two-point PAT kick.
Later in the quarter, Matron Thornton scored on an 18-yard run to make it 14-8 to give the Cougars momentum.
But the Red Knights forced the Cougars to punt early in the fourth quarter and drove the length of the field, leading to Moses’ score.
North attempted an onside kick, and Robert Midgett recovered it. Midgett recovered a fumble earlier in the game. The Knights converted two first downs and ran out the clock.
“They had some equipment issues and we capitalized. It’s a violent chess game. They didn’t get some of their players in by the fourth quarter and they had players they didn’t want to have out here at that point to have to play. We exposed that,” Reeves said.
After a scoreless first quarter, North took advantage of a Clewiston muffed punt as Brown scored on a 23-yard touchdown run to make it 8-0. The Knights tried to extend their lead at the end of the half, but were stopped at the Clewiston 1 as time expired.
The North Midgets also played Saturday against Charlotte, but had no such luck as the Warriors coasted to a 32-8 win.
The Midgets on Tuesday didn’t know who, where or even if they would play Saturday, but they won the three-way Kansas City tiebreaker with North Port and Riverdale to earn the third seed.
Jeremiah Harvey and Yuri Brady scored twice, while quarterback Daniel Rennie threw three touchdown passes for Charlotte, which plays Fort Myers Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Community Park.
“Charlotte is a very good football team and is well coached. I told the boys we had to elevate our game and Charlotte did,” Midget coach Ron Kelly said.