Year of The Bulls: Part Two

by Jdcane98

The Miami-Northwestern Bulls rolled a Greater Orlando area team for the second year in a row in route to the Florida 6A State Championship. In 2006, the Bulls dominated Lake Brantley 34-14 in a game that saw Harris earn his way into the national recruiting spotlight. A year later the Bulls bettered themselves by pitching a shut out in a 41-0 route of Boone High in which the score doesn't fairly depict the magnitude of the victory. The score easily could have become 100-0 as The West either dropped or Harris overthrew multiple touchdown passes.

This season, the Bulls were only tested twice, once against then top ranked Southlake Carroll (Texas). That game was nationally televised and saw the Bulls beat the Dragons 29-21 on ESPN, but the score didn't do that victory justice either. Harris hit on 21-of-28 of his passes totaling 280 yards. Harris threw four TDs, three to senior WR Tommy Streeter (19, 26 and 75) and a 16-yard TD to senior WR Aldarius Johnson.

The second test of the season came in the state semi-finals against Deerfield Beach. The West actually had to overcome a halftime deficit to manage a 19-14 victory and earn a shot at their second 6A state title in a row.

Some people have the nerve to ask, 'so how good the nations top-ranked team?' They put up five shutouts this season, including the state championship game, and scored 40 or more points 10 times this season, also including the dominating performance tonight against Boone. Another factor that might hold less weight is the possibility that QB Jacory Harris, WR's Johnson and Thompkins, OG Brandon Washington, LB Sean Spence and DT Marcus Forston all should wind up playing for the Miami Hurricanes in 2008, and Tommy Streeter and OT Ben Jones should land D1 (FBS) scholarships as well.

So what happened at the game? The Bulls used a hard-hitting defense that played gap sound and used a dominating pass rush to get to the Braves' sophomore Quarterback Sam Hutsell. Hutsell threw for over 800 yards and seven scores on the season. The Bulls out ran, out hit, and out smarted the supposedly 'disciplined' Braves. Boone had total moments of mental collapse, including back-to-back false start penalties while punting in the shadow of their own goal posts, bad snaps, and fumbled hand-offs.

The Bulls weren't perfect themselves. Tommy Streeter catches the ball in his chest far too often and needs to learn to focus and use his hands more when catching the football. The Bulls' center snapped the ball wildly all game, including a bad snap that resulted in a 4th and 30 something at one point. However, team speed and determination won out and The West was able to overcome their mistakes in route to victory.

In what seemed a fitting end to a tumultuous season that saw the entire Varsity coaching staff dismissed at Miami-Northwestern, team leaders Jacory Harris, Marcus Forston, and Sean Spence overcame the pressure of repeating for state champions and taking over a team of high school football players and leading them to victory. Tonight the Bulls can celebrate, these kids, regardless of what the adults did, are champions.