Southeast Seminoles clinch playoff berth with second-half comeback

Clyde Townsend trotted to the Southeast High School sideline and received an earful for the blown coverage that led to Sarasota Booker taking a two-score lead in the second half of a pivotal Class 5A-District 11 game Friday at Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium.

Townsend even said he wasn’t focused coming into the crucial contest, in which the winner earned the district’s second playoff berth as a runner-up. But Townsend didn’t sulk or go through the motions for the rest of the contest. Rather, he orchestrated a second-half comeback for the Seminoles’ 28-21 victory over the Tornadoes.

With 3:22 remaining in the third quarter, Townsend burst past Booker’s punt protection and got his hand on the punt, which ricocheted toward the night sky and into teammate D.J. Bryant’s hands.

“I kind of gave him a step and went inside,” Townsend said. “From there, I kind of pushed the blocker into the ball and just blocked the punt.”

Southeast quarterback Alex Taylor ran in a 9-yard touchdown on the next play and closed what was once a 15-0 Booker lead to two points.

Later, senior running back Qion Burch rumbled in for a 3-yard touchdown and cashed in on a two-point conversion to tie the game at 21-21 early in the fourth quarter.

“I saw I was about to fall, so I saw the end zone was right there,” Burch said. “So I reached out and hopefully I took it.”

Booker previously retook the lead through an Arthur Brantley 37-yard touchdown pass to Issac Edwards.

Once Southeast (4-4 overall, 4-1 district) got even with Booker, the Seminoles’ defense rose up to make a stand. Dequan Williams, Jon Locke and a swarm of defenders made key stops on three separate plays to force a Booker punt. Then, the big plays got even bigger for the Noles.

The storied program, which has its own catalog of crazy plays, saw another one take place.

Taylor connected with his go-to receiver in the second half, Jattorius Galloway (five catches, 124 yards), for a 44-yard completion deep into Booker territory late in the fourth quarter.

The next snap saw Taylor sling a pass that a Booker defender tipped into the air toward the back of the end zone.

Southeast’s Bradely Tresalus dove to snatch it for the game-winning touchdown.

“He was in the right spot, I wished we would have thrown it to him initially,” Southeast head coach Rashad West said. “But they deflected and he just made a play and found the ball.”

Booker, though, still had a chance to force overtime. But Brantley was tackled well shy of a first down on a fourth-and-18 on its next possession and ran out of time following a Southeast punt in the final minute.

Now the Seminoles wait for their first-round playoff opponent. Fort Myers Dunbar, Immokalee and Naples Lely are settling their district champion and runner-up in a three-way tiebreaker on Monday.

Jason Dill: 941-745-7017, @Jason__Dill

This story was originally published October 29, 2016 at 12:21 AM with the headline "Southeast Seminoles clinch playoff berth with second-half comeback."