Terriers Fall to National Powerhouse Armwood in Football Playoffs

Hillsborough High School's football season came to an end on Friday night following a 23-0 loss at Armwood.

The Terriers were unable to generate much on offense as they were hammered by the Hawks for the second time this season. Coach Earl Garcia was proud of the season that his team put together but was forced to tip his hat to a superior opponent.

"The best team won," Garcia said. "That was the Armwood defense we've become accustom to seeing twice a year. They play good football for four quaters and it's tough to beat them. They've got some great athletes on the team and the right guy playing quarterback."

Garcia's reference to Armwood quaterback Alvin Bailey had less to do with his three completions on the night and more to do with his abilty to elude defenders and serve as another leg of the Hawks' ground game. It was Bailey who opened the scoring with the Hawks' first touch of the ball as he returned a Terrier punt 72 yards for a touchdown.

Subsequently the game would slow down. Outside of a 47-yard Nick Feely field goal, both teams found very little success on offense as they traded punts. At halftime, the Terriers were down 9-0, a score they felt they could manage.

"We told our team that's exactly where we were last week against Largo," Garcia said. "But they took the ball the in the second half and did what they do and we couldn't recover from that."

The Hawks took the ball in the second half and broke the game open with a 19-yard rushing touchdown by Wade Edwards. In the first half, Armwood had less success on the ground running outside the tackles, but as senior tailback Matt Jones got rolling up in the middle in the second half, the Hawks would pull away and eventually seal the game with a six yard touchdown run by offensive lineman Sean Gavitt, who checked into the backfield.

"We just had to clean things up in the second half," Armwood coach Sean Callahan said. "We were pushing them hard in the first half and they didn't break which is the sign of a good team. In the second half we pushed a little harder and were able to get Matt (Jones) running down hill. He has to be able to do that for us, he's our hammer."

In all, Jones would finish 131 yards rushing on the night.

For Garcia and the Terriers, finishing with a record of 9-3 and a few rounds short of where they hoped to go is sad, but Garcia has found his grasp on the context of this already.

"As a coach, you try your get your kids to play to their potential," Garcia said. "I'm proud of our kids because I think they played about as good as they could all season. We lost to Armwood twice and Plant. Those are tough games."