By Gary Curreri
Deerfield Beach cross country coach Jerry Guthrie believes his team has a chance to make it to the FHSAA Class 4A state meet with a good effort on Friday.
The Bucks will start their quest for a state berth when they run in the District 12-4A meet at Tradewinds Park on Friday at 9 a.m. It had a strong showing in the recent Westminster Academy meet in Lauderdale Lakes.
The boys’ team was runner- up and was led by junior Romilaire Ambroise, who took fourth in the meet with a 17:40.60 clocking. John I. Leonard won the meet with 34 points.
“The boys really stepped up,” Guthrie said. “We finished in a tie with Boyd Anderson and our sixth runner (Aaron Johnson) broke the tie. You talk about BA and John I. Leonard in front of us and those are two powerhouses. I think both of our teams have a good chance at districts.”
Deerfield Beach’s girls finished fifth in the recent Westminster Invitational with 101 points as Lineliz Cartegena led the team with an 18th place finish (26:52).
Ambroise took 39th in the BCAA meet last Friday at Markham Park to lead the Bucks with a time of 18:50.72. Bryan Hursh (18:44.99) and Evens Fleurantus (19:54.53) took 73rd and 80th in the BCAA meet.
“About a month ago, I was able to talk some of the soccer boys into running and Romilaire came out and won his first race with a 17:40,” Guthrie said. “I think he has a really good chance to go to state. I only have one senior on the team and everyone is in the 18s.”
Guthrie thought his girls team would be the stronger team; however, two of his girls transferred to Pompano Beach and Cardinal Gibbons, respectively. Guthrie hit the soccer fields again and brought in Patricia Leiva.
“She’s come a long way,” Guthrie added. “Sarah Strothman is our No. 1 runner and she is also a soccer player. I just saw them running in the stands one day and said, ‘why don’t you run with us, and,all of a sudden, I have a nice little girls’ team.”
Guthrie, who has been at the school since 1998 and has been the cross country coach since 2000, said he had 60 runners come out for the team this year and said he is looking at the future.
“We worked hard all summer,” added Guthrie, who said there were approximately 40 athletes at tryouts last year. He went to all of the other teams around the school and tried to get them to come out for the team. “I told them they were sitting on the end of the bench for their teams; come run for us. We had 11 girls on the team last year and now we have 23.”
Bucks win in OT
Brandon Powell scored on a 3-yard run in overtime to lift visiting Deerfield Beach to a 27-24 victory over Monarch at Coconut Creek High School on Friday night in a District 12-8A matchup of two unbeaten teams.
Monarch (7-1, 4-1) had taken a 24-21 lead in overtime on a 24-yard field goal by Tyler Johnson.
Powell ran for 134 yards on 21 carries and scored on a 51-yard TD run with 11 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Bucks (7-0, 5-0) a 21-14 lead. Monarch quarterback Mike Harris scored on a 1-yard run to tie the game.
The Bucks fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter before mounting a rally. Monarch’s Brandon Pope caught a 10- yard pass from Mike Harris and Tyrone Woods scored on a 7-yard run for the Knights.
Justin Morgan caught a 30- yard scoring toss from Denarious Graham, and Jamal Patterson hauled in a 41-yard scoring pass to tie the game for Deerfield Beach, which won for the seventh consecutive time.