BY GENE NARDI
The Palm Beach Central High School flag football team hosted rival Royal Palm Beach High School on Thursday, April 13 and shut out the Wildcats 18-0.
Both team struggled offensively early on. The Broncos (3-4) attempted to convert on a fourth-and-short on their initial possession but came up empty. The Wildcats did not fare much better, as their drive was snuffed out by an aggressive Bronco defense. Three bad snaps through the game for the Royal Palm Beach offense proved to be one of the deciding factors for the Wildcats not closing the margin.
A short high punt by Royal Palm Beach gave the Broncos less than half of the field to travel for their first score of the game. At the start of the second quarter, Palm Beach Central quarterback Katrina Desorbo ran a bootleg to the right for the 8-yard touchdown run. The point-after attempt was no good, and the Broncos took a 6-0 lead.
The Bronco defense continued to torment the Wildcat offense, forcing them into a punt situation. Desorbo went to work again, this time putting up a big 38-yard pass to Alanna Anderson to give the Broncos the ball at the Royal Palm Beach 2-yard line. Anderson had to leap up over the Wildcat defender to make the catch. Desorbo then found Nicole Cuomo for the short pass to extend the Bronco lead to 12-0, which closed out the first half.
The Wildcats (1-8) started the second half strong, forcing Palm Beach Central to punt for the first time in the contest. The Bronco punt pushed Royal Palm Beach’s offense back to its 21-yard line. The Wildcats could not collect themselves offensively and shake the errors to move the ball.
Cuomo caught her second touchdown pass in the fourth quarter from Desorbo to put the Broncos up 18-0. The point-after attempt was no good. Royal Palm Beach put together its best drive late in the game, but again, mishandled snaps haunted the team’s chances of closing the gap, and 18 points were all the Broncos needed for the win.
Palm Beach Central improved to 3-4, and Royal Palm Beach fell to 1-8. Desorbo threw for three scores for the Broncos, and Cuomo had two touchdown receptions.
ABOVE: Bronco quarterback Katrina Desorbo runs the ball up field between the Royal Palm Beach defenders.
