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Plant Rips Jefferson For 4A-District 10 Crown

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By SCOTT PURKS/The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 8, 2008

TAMPA - A yellow flag flew in the air with nine minutes remaining, and that was the last straw for Plant coach Bob Weiner.

Not only did Weiner have to leave the game, but he also had to completely leave the property of Jefferson High, where the Class 4A-District 10 game was being played.

Ejected.

Weiner spent the last nine minutes across the street, where he heard the final score announced over the loudspeaker - Plant 30, Jefferson 7.

The final flag thrown on Weiner was but one in a slew of 31 thrown on the night, 20 of which were thrown on the Panthers for 180 yards.

"It was sloppy, no doubt," said Bo Puckett, who stepped in as head coach in Weiner's absence. "As for [Weiner getting ejected], well, I think there was a miscommunication between [Weiner] and the refs. I think [the referees] heard something that they interpreted differently from what [Weiner] actually said after the disputed play."

The play in dispute was a possible intentional grounding by Jefferson's quarterback, a play that would have had little bearing on the outcome because Plant (8-1, 3-0) was leading 27-0.

The head referee declined to comment, and Weiner did not return a phone call to his cell phone after the game.

Jefferson coach Mike Fenton, who said he was ejected in a game and forced to pay a $500 fine by the same officials crew in 2005 when he was a Jefferson assistant, said he had "No idea why [Weiner] was ejected." Fenton did say the amount of penalties called was a bit of a distraction, a sentiment with which Puckett agreed.

"The penalties certainly affected the flow," Puckett said. "Every time you thought you had something going there would be a flag. Apparently we were making a lot of mistakes."

Plant truly didn't get into any kind of a flow until the second quarter when it scored 14 points, the last of which was an 8-yard pass to Orson Charles with no time left on the clock.

Fenton intimated that the play stung badly, especially after Jefferson (5-4, 2-1) struggled itself after some questionable occurrences, namely an apparent touchdown catch in the first quarter that would have given the Dragons a 7-0 lead.

The ball, however, was ruled dropped.

"We needed to make some big plays and that would have been a huge play for us," Fenton said. "Unfortunately it didn't work out."

After that, besides the penalties, it was pretty much all Plant, led by running back Marco Cobb (12 carries, 148 yards).

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