Led by Sears, Moore, Columbus routs Palmetto to secure vital district victory

Miami-Dade High Schools admin September 11, 2026 0 Comments

Led by Sears, Moore, Columbus routs Palmetto to secure vital district victory

Columbus’ competition the past two weeks couldn’t have been tougher, having faced a team ranked No. 1 in the nation not once but twice.

But on Thursday night, the Explorers knew rival Miami Palmetto presented its own tough challenge.

And the bearing the game had on the District 16-6A championship as well as its potential impact on each team’s power ranking at the end of the season made it even more important.

After a sloppy first half, Columbus asserted control with 27 points in the third quarter to spark a 34-7 rout of the Panthers on Thursday night at Sam Burley Field at Southridge Park.

The Explorers (3-1, 1-0 in district), ranked No. 7 nationally by MaxPreps, secured arguably their most important district victory. Columbus scored 34 unanswered points after Palmetto (3-1, 0-1) jumped out to a 7-0 lead with Aiden Butler broke loose for a 59-yard touchdown run on the Panthers first drive.

The Explorers, who beat Las Vegas Bishop Gorman on Aug. 29, and soared to the top 10 in multiple national polls before losing a close 34-27 game to St. Thomas Aquinas last week, struggled to sustain offensive momentum in the first half due largely to five holding penalties.

Columbus leveled the game at 7 early in the second quarter on the first of Northern Illinois commit Kai Moore’s two touchdown passes – a 5-yarder over the middle to Ahmad Summerall.

“We had too many penalties. We had more in this game than the first three combined which is uncharacteristic for us, but we didn’t turn the ball over and we only punted once the whole game,” Columbus coach Dave Dunn said. “We just have to be cleaner with the penalties and better in the red zone.”

Miami Hurricanes commit A’Mir Sears then made a game-changing play that would shift the momentum for good.

A deep pass from Moore turned into a 50-50 ball between Sears and a Palmetto defensive back. Sears snared the ball from his opponent at the far sideline and raced 58 yards to the end zone to put Columbus ahead for good.

The Explorers’ special teams pushed the lead to 21-7 when 6-5 sophomore linebacker Sekou Toure, the younger brother of UM’s Mo Toure, blocked a Palmetto punt and Rocco Callegari scooped it and ran it six yards into the end zone.

Leading 23-7, things continued to break right for Columbus as an errant snap out of the Wildcat formation was picked up by Sears, who then turned the corner and found the end zone from 3 yards out.

The Explorers scored a pair of safeties thanks to poor long snaps by Palmetto during which its punter needed to kick the ball out of the end zone twice.

“Our defense played lights out,” Dunn said. “After we didn’t play as well as we hoped last week on defense and they had a short week and we came out strong. We’re 1-0 this week so we’re happy.”