Big Plans For Miami Springs Golden Hawks Football

 In the grand scheme of things, it was only a spring football game. Where spring games are concerned, they usually mean very little other than to give coaches a sneak preview of what they’re going to have to work with when they hit the sleds for real in August. But the spring game for the Miami Springs Golden Hawks football team this year had a much different feel to it. That’s because it was the debut of new head coach and former alum T.Y. Hilton as the new head coach. One of the greatest multi-sport athletes to ever come out of the school, Hilton, after graduating in 2008, went on to lift the FIU program (under then head coach Mario Cristobal) to great heights before turning in nine quality seasons as a wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts, making the Pro Bowl four different times.

Numerous Hawks alumni you would normally never see at a spring game dotted the sideline, curious to see if  Hilton’s arrival might spell a new era of success for a football program that has made exactly one postseason appearance in the state playoffs over the last 30 years. What a show they got. After floundering around and looking like the struggling program it’s been over the years in the first half, falling behind the Falcons 14-0 at the break, the Hawks came storming back in the second half to pull out a dramatic 21-14 victory at Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines.

Dramatic because, just when it looked like the game would end in a 14-14 tie, the Hawks showed a flare for excitement when they scored on the final play of the game to pull out a 21-14 victory. With just nine seconds left in the game and the Hawks 39 yards away from the end zone, quarterback Marcus Smith dropped back and hit Victwon Miller in the right flat. The play was designed to just pick up a few more yards to get Springs closer to the end zone and for Miller to get out of bounds giving the Hawks one final play. But Miller had other ideas. After catching the ball, he juked one Flanagan defender, then broke out of the grasp of another and broke free, tight-roping his way down the sidelines and into the end zone as the clock struck triple zeroes. The euphoric Springs bench emptied and headed straight for the end zone to celebrate with Miller.

“Just wanted to try and make a play to help my team,” said Miller as he was being mobbed by his teammates. “You all stuck with it, I knew you had it in you,” yelled Hilton to his team in the post-game huddle. “Now we have to build on this and move forward from here.” Hilton and his coaches were not a happy group at halftime as the  Hawks offense struggled (two first downs and never crossed midfield) and the defense committed some key penalties (including two unsportsmanlike calls that kept Flanagan drives alive) as the Falcons scored a pair of touchdowns to go up 14-0 at the break.

Whatever halftime speech Hilton game them at halftime worked. Springs came out and drove 75 yards in eight plays on its opening second half drive to cut its deficit to 14-7 when Smith found Jeremiah Spann on a 28-yard scoring pass. After a nice stop by the defense, the Hawks offense put together another nice scoring drive (62 yards in 8 plays) and when running back Jacorey Capers skirted around the left side into the end zone from six yards out with 9:42 left, the game was tied at 14.

The comeback almost went for naught when a bungled snap from the shotgun formation by Smith led to a fumble and Flanagan recovery at the Springs 35 with 3:25 left. But the Springs defense was a wall, pushing the Falcons backwards and getting Flanagan to turn the ball over on downs after four plays. Having already used up all of their timeouts, the Hawks took over at their own 42 with 1:35 to play setting the stage for the final dramatic play. Hawks players will now get some well-deserved time off before returning in late July to start getting ready for the 2026 season which will kick off with a Kickoff Classic contest against Southwest at Milander Stadium Aug. 12, 13, or 14.