Marve comes through in the end for Panthers

QB leads Plant to victory with little more than a minute left.

By SCOTT PURKS
Published October 28, 2006

TAMPA - After all the conjecture and analysis and comparison as to who was the better team and who was the better quarterback - Jefferson's Stephen Garcia or Plant's Robert Marve - the spotlight ended up shining brightest on Marve in the game's final moments.

With one minute, 29 seconds remaining, trailing 13-10, Marve got the ball first and 10 on his own 28. On the first play he completed a 52-yard pass to Luke Rorech. Five plays later, with 19 seconds on the clock, he threw the winner, a 3-yarder to Derek Winter who wrestled the ball from two Jefferson defenders in the end zone.

It was a wild finish - Plant 17, Jefferson 13 - to a hard-hitting, big-play night between two of the state's top teams. The victory gave Plant (9-0, 3-0) the Class 4A, District 10 title and put Jefferson (8-2, 2-1) on the road for the first playoff game.

It also left some wondering why Jefferson, holding a 13-10 lead and the ball on Plant's 28, didn't run on third and fourth down. There was less than 1:40 on the clock and the Panthers were out of timeouts.

"(We threw the ball) because the game was over if we made a first down," Jefferson coach Mike Fenton said.

Two incomplete passes, however, gave Marve, who had failed to make a first down in his three previous possessions, all the time he needed.

"I felt honored to be in the position to give our team that last chance," said Marve, who finished 21-of-35 for 230 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. "I've been a starter for three years and I felt I was the one who should be in that position."

As for the 52-yard completion, Marve said: "(Rorech) told me at school today to give him a chance. Hey, he's a playmaker. I believe in him. He made a great catch (on a dead run a step ahead of Jefferson's defenders)."

Jefferson defensive coordinator Lee Meitzler said the play "stunned" him.

Except for Plant's opening drive, an 18-play, 90-yarder that chewed up almost eight minutes and ended with a touchdown pass, Jefferson pretty much held the Panthers in check.

Jefferson took its first and only lead, 13-10, with nine minutes remaining when Garcia threw for two key third-down conversions in a 60-yard, seven-play drive he finished with a 12-yard touchdown run.

The run somehow seemed fitting because Garcia, Hillsborough's all-time passing leader with more than 7,600 yards, had run for almost as many yards on the night, 70, as he had thrown for, 86.

[Last modified October 29, 2006, 05:54:31]