AROUND WELLINGTON STORIES OF THE MONTH
Prep Seminoles roll through playoffs and championship to finish the WCFL’s first-ever flag season undefeated
Florida State outscores opponents 368-18 to finish a perfect 14-0
By Scott Tolley
The message from the Hall-of-Famer was simple, better yet, simply perfect: Create history, but more important, create some memories to last a lifetime.
The Prep Seminoles did both.
The Florida State Seminoles finished off the Western Communities Football League’s first flag football season as the league’s only undefeated team, rolling through the playoffs and championship game as they had all season. The Seminoles’ perfect season was underlined with a 26-6 win over Tennessee in Saturday’s championship contest at Village Park in Wellington.
Earlier Saturday on May 9th, the Seminoles shut out Auburn 19-0 in the semifinals. It was their 11th shutout in 14 games and their second in the playoffs.
The Seminoles played inspired football in the playoffs. Letter perfect you might say.
Prior to Saturday’s semifinal matchup with Auburn, a letter was read to the team that was sent from Nick Buoniconti, the Hall-of-Fame linebacker and one of the prominent members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, which became the first—and remain the only—team in NFL history to go undefeated the entire season.
Now the WCFL has its own perfect team. Florida State, under the guidance of coaches Chris Fratalia, Dwight McDonald and Tim Winn, finished the Prep Division (grades 3-5) regular season at 11-0. When you combine the regular and postseason, the Seminoles outscored opponents 368-18 and never gave up more than six points in any one game.
“I am so proud of this team,” Coach Fratalia said. “They played all season long with the aura of an undefeated season lurking over them all, and everyone handled the pressure extremely well.”
The Seminoles opened the playoffs last Thursday with a 33-0 victory over Penn State, a performance that came without two-way star Derek McDonald but turned into a total team effort. The win was punctuated by a 10-yard touchdown catch on fourth down from Emily Anderson and an interception returned for a score on the game’s final play by Robert Lamelas, who had opened the playoff contest by catching a pair of Kyle Cartales passes for touchdowns. Max Fratalia added a touchdown catch before halftime, as seven different Seminoles—the others being Lamelas, Anderson, Miles Forbes, Casey Ohman, Dylan Tolley, Tyler Winn—caught at least one pass in the victory.
“I feel the main key to our offensive success of 368 combined points in 14 games (FSU averaged 26.3 points per game) was the fact that we didn’t key on any one receiver,” Fratalia said. “We spread the ball around to everyone, so when you have to match up against us defensively, nobody on the opposition knew who to cover. We threw the ball 95 percent of the time to eight different receivers. It was fun to hear the opposing coaches argue with each other as to how to defend us. There is truly no cure for diversification on the football field. Our offense was lethal.”
The defense, led by coaches McDonald and Winn, made its own season-long statement. Against Penn State, every player took a defensive snap. The shutout was led by Kai Rosado’s multiple flag pulls and relentless pressure from the line, including rusher Tanner Winn.
The Penn State win set up the semifinal Saturday against Auburn and a message from Buoniconti.
Buoniconti congratulated the team, but also challenged them to finish what they started. He warned them about the complacency that often comes with success, and encouraged them to play as a team, and to push each other to higher levels. Most important, he asked them to have fun.
“You will always remember this year and this team,” the letter said. “My fellow Dolphins from 1972 are among the closest and most cherished friends in my life. Like we did more than 36 years ago, you have an opportunity to finish off something special and remember it for the rest of your life….So go finish it!”
The Seminoles wasted no time in doing so, as quarterback Kyle Cartales rushed for three touchdowns, including a 35-yard scamper down the right sideline on the game’s opening possession. Cartales, keeping cool under game-time temperatures of 90 degrees, then avoided a sack on third down deep in Auburn territory, slipped outside and raced in for another score. Mixing in passes to Lamelas, Fratalia and Anderson, Cartales continued to drive the Seminoles in the second half. Then, in the final seconds, Cartales took a quarterback sneak from the Auburn 38 and raced in for the final score and a 19-0 victory.
In the Championship game against Tennessee, the Seminoles’ high-powered offense sent a message on its opening drive, as Cartales scrambled in from 29 yards for the first score. Fratalia caught a quick slant across the middle for a 7-0 lead.
Completions of 30 yards to Robert Lamelas and 20 yards to Tyler Winn—the latter coming on a double pass from Fratalia—set up Cartales’ 10-yard touchdown run for a 13-0 advantage.
A completion to Miles Forbes, followed by a long run down the left sideline from Lamelas, led to a 17-yard scramble and touchdown by Cartales for a 19-0 margin. The Seminoles then gave up their only score of the postseason on a 46-yard touchdown pass late in the first half, but they responded in the closing half with a 15-yard touchdown on a diving catch in the left end zone by Casey Ohman—his first touchdown of the season. Fittingly, Cartales raced in on a quarterback keeper to the left side for the point-after and the 26-6 final.