Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Plant | | 48 |
| Osceola | | 23 |
Kickoff return for score 'fired up' Panthers
TAMPA - Plant quarterback Robert Marve has some company under the spotlight in the Panthers' first-round playoff win over Osceola on Friday night.
And it came from teammate Luke Rorech.
"A lot of people don't know about Luke," Plant coach Robert Weiner said, "but he does everything for us."
All Rorech did against Osceola (8-3) was score his team's first touchdown on a reception, return a kickoff for another when Plant (11-0) trailed by nine and produce the game-clinching points with a 51-yard reception midway through the final quarter. His scoring plays totaled 180 yards.
Rorech's kickoff return was his most significant play. With Plant behind 16-7 in the second quarter and momentum squarely on Osceola's side, he caught the ball at the 11 and sprinted all the way to the end zone.
"That (play) brought us to our feet," Marve said.
Added Rorech, "I think it really fired us up."
The game was still up for grabs entering the fourth, with Plant trailing again. But two Marve touchdown passes - one to Derek Winter and the other to Rorech - allowed Plant to take control. Marve finished with 268 passing yards and three scores. He ran for another.
"We found our swagger in the second half," Marve said.
Keith Niebuhr, Times correspondent
[Last modified November 11, 2006, 06:15:47]
Share your thoughts on this story
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Subscribe to the Times
Click here for daily delivery
of the St. Petersburg Times.
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
