Plant Wins For Coach Weiner: Plant 34 Jesuit 20 – TBO
Plant running back Wesley Bullock runs down the Panthers' sidelines en route to a fourth-quarter touchdown run against Jesuit on Friday at Dad's Stadium. Staff photo by BILL WARD/The Tampa Tribune
By: Bill Ward
Tampa Tribune
September 3, 2011
They didn’t and Weiner, a Jesuit alumnus, ended up down Himes Ave. at Plant where he’s won three state championships. Facing his former team for the first time since he left Jesuit, Weiner’s Plant players put an exclamation point on the seeming slight with a 34-20 victory in front of a standing room only crowd at Dad’s Stadium.
Weiner doesn’t talk about his parting from Jesuit eight years ago, but his players felt the need to show up for him.
“I know how much this game meant for him and I know how much he wanted to get this victory,” said senior cornerback/running back Antonio Crawford. “We just went out there and finished business.”
Crawford handled a lot of business for the Panthers, accounting for 135 of Plant’s 255 rushing yards, and two touchdowns. Junior running back Wesley Bullock also scored two touchdowns and finished with 89 rushing yards.
Crawford’s first touchdown in the third quarter gave the Panthers a 19-6 lead. Jesuit pulled within six points at the beginning of the fourth quarter when Tommy Eveld engineered a 10-play, 75-yard drive which he capped off with a 30-yard touchdown strike to Aaron Paulsen, who started at quarterback for Jesuit.
Plant did its own rotating at quarterback with senior James Few getting the majority of the snaps and setting the tone early for the Panthers by completing six-consecutive pass attempts. He finished 8-of-10 for 184 yards.
The Tigers had a chance to go ahead with less than five minutes remaining in the game. Eveld was once again driving the Tigers and got them to the Panthers 20 yard line. But a sack and false start penalty backed Jesuit up and facing fourth-and-25, Eveld threw a pass that was intercepted by Plant senior safety David Lerom.
Plant converted that turnover into a touchdown, but found themselves up by only seven with 2:45 remaining in the game when Eveld, who finished with 160 passing yards and 40 rushing yards, ran seven yards for a touchdown.
On the Panthers next possession, Crawford made sure the Tigers didn’t get any closer with a third-down, 52-yard touchdown run that put the game away for good.
“I’ve never, never, never, even eight years ago, said one bad thing about Jesuit,” Weiner said. “I have nothing but respect for Jesuit. Anything that’s positive about my coaching today is positive because of the influence I was given during my days there at Jesuit.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | Final | |
| Jesuit | 0 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 20 | |
| Plant | 6 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 32 |
- P-Bostic (kick blocked)
- P-Bullock 1 run (pass failed)
- J-Clonts 4 run (kick failed)
- P-Crawford 8 run (Van Aman kick)
- J-Paulsen 30 pass from Eveld (Greene kick)
- P-Bullock 48 run (Few pass from Banks)
- J-Eveld 8 run (Greene kick)
- P-Crawford 52 run (Van Aman kick)