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Caribs Beats Barracudas in Football Grudge Match

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Caribs Beats Barracudas in Football Grudge Match

Behind his big offensive line, Caribs QB Dejani Rivera (12) looks for a receiver.The Central High School Caribs withstood a frantic second-half comeback by archrival St. Croix Educational Complex Barracudas to pull out a hard-fought 28-26 victory on the Barracudas’ home field.

Gilbert Roberts, the Caribs bruising running back, rushed for more than 100 yards and scored three of the team’s four touchdowns, breaking tackles and carrying defenders along the way. He later volunteered to play both ways, coming up big on defense in the critical fourth quarter.

With Roberts leading the way, the Caribs, after several years of futility, were able to celebrate a victory against their cross-island rivals to the delight of fans who invaded the Barracudas’ campus.

Roberts ran in two touchdowns in the first half and Romeo Bergen ran in a third as the Caribs, running behind their huge offensive line, dominated the ground game to open up a 20-0 halftime lead, thoug they came up short on a pair of two-point conversion attempts.

The defense meanwhile was also very dominant, not giving the Barras much to work with. Their big problem for most of the night was the amount of penalty yards they gave up. It was amazing that they were able to still win the game after giving up what was over 125 yards in penalties.

The Barracudas came out of intermission with a sense of urgency, and whatever the coaching staff told them during the break really fired them up. On their first offensive play from scrimmage in the second half, tailback Bernadis Cruel took it 75 yards to the house to get his team on the board.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Caribs bungled a would-be trick play, fumbling the ball away to the Barracudas. The Barras took full advantage, and two plays later Cruel took it around the right end for the touchdown. After a successful two-point conversion the Caribs lead was cut to six at 20-14.

The Barracudas, now with the momentum and the home crowd staunchly behind them, after a defensive stop pushed for the game-tying score or the outright lead with a successful extra point try. That score came when sophomore quarterback Marvin Barton found Bradley Carbon wide open in the end zone to tie the game at 20 after a failed two-point attempt.

But after playing uninspired football for most of the second half, the Caribs responded after the Barras tied the game. Taking advantage of a personal foul penalty and some strong running by Gilbert, the Caribs found themselves with a first and 10 at the Barras’ 10-yard line.

If some is good, more is better — the Caribs again put the ball in the hands of Gilbert and he responded by banging it in for the score. He then went up the middle for the two-point conversion to give his team a 28-20 lead with 3:33 left in the game.

But a couple of Caribs penalties after the kickoff put the Barracudas in Caribs territory. They then put the ball in the hands of their most successful runner of the evening, Cruel, and he delivered on a 35-yard run into the end zone to bring his team to within a two-point conversion of tying the game with 1:57 left and the score at 28-26.

Needing a big defensive stop to preserve the lead and possibly the victory, the Caribs defense rose to the task by picking off the pass attempt by Barton in the end zone.

The Caribs were then able to run out the clock to preserve the 28-26 victory, but not before recovering an onside kick attempt by the Barras.

For Coach George Clark it was a sweet victory over his on-island archrivals, one that has been a long time coming.

“We played a great first half, but in the second I think we got away from what we were doing earlier and it almost cost us the game. Luckily we were able to get it back together in the end,” said Clark.

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