Story
Pahokee 41, Cardinal Newman 0: Blue Devils win one for 'Pooh'
Friday, September 25, 2009
by
Joe Koch
PAHOKEE — On a night filled with emotion, the Pahokee football team honored fallen teammate Norman 'Pooh' Griffith Jr. the best way it knew how — with a dominating 41-0 victory against Cardinal Newman Friday night at Anquan Boldin Stadium.
The victory took place right after a moving ceremony at midfield as the school retired Griffith's No. 7 one day before the anniversary of Griffith's tragic death in a shooting in Belle Glade.
'We are always thinking about Norman,' Pahokee coach Blaze Thompson said. 'Today was just another day for us in our struggle to deal with it. We fight to maintain our focus with all of the things that go on.'
After Pahokee (3-1, 1-0) forced Cardinal Newman (1-3, 0-1) to punt after just three plays on its opening drive, the Blue Devils quickly went to work as senior Fred Pickett took a handoff from quarterback Emanuel Perez, darted through the line, raced to his left and scampered 55 yards for the touchdown.
Pickett, who is listed on the Blue Devils' roster as a wide receiver, finished the game with 103 yards on eight carries. He added a 6-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
'(Pickett's two touchdowns) were no surprise,' Thompson said. 'He's just a great skill player. He splits time at running back and wide receiver. He could also play quarterback and safety. He's that talented.'
Thompson said the Blue Devils were concentrating on the offensive line, and that focus paid off as Pahokee wound up with 324 yards in total offense — 213 on the ground and 111 in the air. 'Our blocking schemes improved a lot this week.'
Wardell Coleman and Jaqay Perdue added rushing touchdowns of 3 and 5 yards, respectively, while quarterback Emanuel Perez completed 8-of-16 passes for 111 yards. Two of those passes went for touchdowns of six and 26 yards to Dennis Hall and De'Joshua Johnson, respectively.
First-year Cardinal Newman coach Steve Walsh lamented the fact that several of his starters missed the game because of illness. But he also praised the Blue Devils' effort.
'Pahokee is a talented group,' he said. 'From a scheme standpoint, there wasn't a lot we could do. We struggled with pass protection, and they did a nice job of knocking (passes) down. But we just have to get healthy.'
User Comments:
BlueDevilSpeed commented on September 26, 2009 at 2:45 a.m.: report abuse
i hope North Broward Prep Eagles High School is ready!!
SIERRA JOHNSON commented on September 26, 2009 at 4:48 a.m.: report abuse
LET'S GO BLUE DEVILS, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!! 1 TIME FOR "POOH"
CNHS Grad commented on September 26, 2009 at 5:08 a.m.: report abuse
Poor hapless Cardinal Newman never has and likely never will be a football power. Wealthy Catholic white boys just don't have 'it' to play football in PBC. Pahokee should have beat you by 80+ points. Maybe there were being kind. How about those Newman golf and tennis teams?
CNHS Grad 1983 commented on September 26, 2009 at 8:21 a.m.: report abuse
Interesting post CNHS grad obviously you didn't football in the 80s
or remembered when CN played at Glades Central and came home with a victory
and ended the regular season 10-0 in 1983.
Perhaps show some class and root for your alma mater next week
Newman plays Pine Crest at home.
GLORYDAYS commented on September 26, 2009 at 10:02 a.m.: report abuse
newman's prob right now is that dicus couldn't coach pee wee football much less varsity ball...and that hangover is still lingering....walsh'll get it it going but it's gonna be a few years...if he can hang in there. FYI, some guy talking about a record 25 years ago needs to move on with his life....GLORY DAYS>>>>GET OVER IT!
mark sneed commented on September 26, 2009 at 10:07 a.m.: report abuse
newman is not getting their monies worth from the over paid new coaches. poorly prepaired, slow, physically weak. you can lack tallent and still play like you are well coached - come on guys. the kids deserve better than this.i did not think anyone could do worse than the last coach
Class of 01 commented on September 26, 2009 at 10:32 a.m.: report abuse
CNHS Grad...Lets not forget about the class of 2000-2001 Who shut out Pahokee 28-0, Came within a touchdown of beating Glades Central when they had Santonio Holmes, Shut out Suncoast with Devin Hester...when I played CN had atleast 8-10 D-1 guys, not to mention ELAM who's BALLING for the Clevland Browns! And the 3 other players that are/were in the NFL...Erickson,Carney, and Jefferson. So get your facts straight before you make yourself look like an A$$.
wildcat4life commented on September 26, 2009 at 10:51 a.m.: report abuse
lol @ u newman guys, he didnt say that yall havent had a good team here and there, he said that yall never have been a powerhouse, a powerhouse does it consistently. and he's right, yall arent nor have yall ever been a powerhouse, yall have had a couple good teams, but never have yall been consistant with it...o and im talkin since 1983, anything b4 that season, i dont kno...shout out to my WILDCATS, we got beat last night, but im proud u boy kept fighting and made it a game
D3ViL GiRL commented on September 26, 2009 at 12:25 p.m.: report abuse
W3 DNT PLAy ! 41-0 ... W3 R3ADy 4 DhA RAiD3RS ! i CNT WAiT TiLL MUCk BOWl .. W3 GON hAV3 US SOM3 RAiD3R B-HiNd ! [ yAy ] gO D3ViLS gO !
LIL DAVID commented on September 26, 2009 at 12:34 p.m.: report abuse
LETS GO PK WE NEED TO PICK UP ANOTHER WIN CANT NOBODY BEAT US WE THE BEST GET THIS FOR POOH
CNHS Class of '11 commented on September 26, 2009 at 1:01 p.m.: report abuse
CNHS grad, are you retarded? You do realize that the majority of the team isn't wealthy and aren't catholic, right? Listen, yes we've had good teams before and yes, we've sucked for a while. The way I see it, my boys need to be in the Raich building lifting weights and getting physically ready all summer long.. NOT a week or so before tryouts. We haven't been prepared mentally or physically at all this season for sure. I can tell you for certain, something's just not clicking here. Whether its because of the coaching or because the guys don't act like a team, I couldn't tell you, but something just isn't working. We've got SOME true individual talent on our team and SOME guys with the heart (and when I say some I mean a small amount), but that's mixed with the guys that have no heart and the guys that are just too darn cocky to get their head's out of their butts and realize that they aren't the "best thing to ever happen to this school." The guys don't even believe in themselves half the time! A whole bunch of the team vowed that they would quit the team if they lost to Forest Hill. WE NEED A TEAM, a team that pushes each other, plays to represent our school, plays for a common cause, plays to win. Right now, we have a bunch of immature guys that wear the jersey just to wear the jersey. The only reason we're 1-3 is because we played Forest Hill last week. If we played anyone else, we'd be 0-4.
Oh, and by the way, almost everyone agrees with me on this point: WE NEED A BETTER QUARTERBACK!
IVONE ALVARADO commented on September 26, 2009 at 1:31 p.m.: report abuse
I KNEW WE COULD DO IT GOOOOOOOOO BLUE DEVILS!!!!!!!!!!
cnhs grad 80 commented on September 26, 2009 at 4:17 p.m.: report abuse
since I have been away from WPB I have followed CN sports. What I am reading is a lot of crazy things. I don't care what team you play for but in order to be a team the team members must learn to play as a team an not as a bunch of individuals. If over the last few years this has occured at Newman then they will not have a winning program. It will take a coach who is a take charge coach. He may find that some of the spoiled kids don't want to play but if he works on the team concept he will produce a winning program. That is what you see from Pahokee and Belle Glades. Their communities support and back their teams and they produce winners. What I see here is a bunch of spoiled grads and students that think they know every thing. Give this new coach a chance and see if he can bring the TEAM around, if not then a new coach should be hired. But again things don't happen over night and these players must believe in the team if they want to win, other wise forget it.
CNHS Class of '10 commented on September 26, 2009 at 10:02 p.m.: report abuse
CN should have immediately put in the back up QB. He's dirty. #16 was having trouble against the devils. Speed and size doesn't affect #12 mentally.
CNHS commented on September 27, 2009 at 12:22 a.m.: report abuse
we arnt that bad as people think we are. people just think that we suck and dont give us a chance anymore. Its going to take time for us to get a winning season we are still getting use to the new coach. When this does happen i will promise newman a winning season.
CN observer commented on September 29, 2009 at 3:11 p.m.: report abuse
Mark Sneed, you are an idiot who should just keep his mouth shut! These kids have never had the level of coaching at Cardinal Newman that they have now. Leave the criticism to those in the arena Mark.
Triple Threat commented on September 29, 2009 at 3:54 p.m.: report abuse
CNHS you said:we arnt that bad as people think we are. people just think that we suck and dont give us a chance anymore. Its going to take time for us to get a winning season we are still getting use to the new coach. When this does happen i will promise newman a winning season.
That is probably one of the worse excuses I have ever heard from a player regarding a losing season and is a prime example of what is wrong with CNHS football.Poor Attitude! It is not up to other people to"give you a chance".It is up to you,and your teammates, to practice hard, believe in your coaches and believe in yourselves. Nobody else can do that for you except YOU.
Quit making excuses and man up, this is no longer an after school babysitting service.
Let's go commented on September 29, 2009 at 9 p.m.: report abuse
These kids are on the field from around 3 till 7 they try very hard but they just lack all around tallent. The play call is also very conservative for a coach with his reputation on the line.
CNHS commented on September 30, 2009 at 9:37 a.m.: report abuse
Triple Threat unless you are watching all of newmans practices and actually hearing their attitudes you can not talk. Dont tell newman what is wrong with their program
crusader commented on October 3, 2009 at 11:55 a.m.: report abuse
seriously, we try really hard we just suck really badly. we have no athletes and our playcalling is conservative to a point where it is impossible to win. last night against pine crest there was 1:30 left in pouring rain and we were moving the ball through the air perfectly fine. we only had 1 timeout left and for some reason unbenownced to us, a run play was called, resulting in a fumble. this was the worst playcalling since last year.
@D3ViL GiRL commented on October 2, 2010 at 5:01 p.m.: report abuse
Honestly , you guys are a good team but your an idiot, i bet if you spell the way you spelt all that nonsense you would be in school while your children are graduating, i mean get some class.
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