BOCA RATON, Fla. — Da’Vante Phillips had 11 catches for 120 yards and two second-half touchdown catches and Lenwood Joyner had two touchdown catches as No. 6 Miami Central defeated No. 15 Bothell, Wash., 37-27, in the second game of the Burger King State Champions Bowl Series Saturday at Florida Atlantic University.

“(Phillips) hasn’t met a challenge he wasn’t able to compete against,” Miami Central coach Roland Smith said. “Any time somebody goes one-on-one with him, we like our chances.”

Phillips’ first touchdown catch was a good illustration of the difference between the Rockets (14-1), who won the Florida 6A title and the Cougars (14-1), who won the Washington 4A title. Miami Central quarterback Jerrod Thomas threw high to the 6-1 Phillips, an American Family Insurance ALL-USA first-team player. He outleaped Bothell’s Sean Hanrahan, who is 5-9 and was playing both ways, for an 8-yard score. Phillips, who was named the game’s MVP, later capped the Rockets’ scoring with a 2-yard touchdown catch from Malik Atkin. He has indicated he plans to make his college announcement at the Under Armour All-American Game (see video below).

Another difference-maker was Miami Central’s defense, which had two second-half sacks on Cal-bound quarterback Ross Bowers of Bothell. Bowers threw two touchdown passes to Dayzell Wilson and one to Hanrahan. The Cougars’ other score came on a 4-yard run with 2:17 left by Caleb Meyer.

Bothell came out hot to start the second half. Bowers drove the Cougars 80 yards in 11 plays, helped by a defensive holding penalty, cutting Central’s lead to 17-14 on a 33-yard touchdown pass to Wilson. On the play, Bowers scrambled for a few seconds, then threw to Wilson, who grabbed the ball away from defender Calvin Brewton.

“The stop was unbelievable and we talked to ourselves and said, ‘We’re going to score this first series,’ ” Bothell coach Tom Bainter said. “What we were worried about all day long as a staff is they start 22 players and we don’t. We have a lot of two-way players and we just knew the humidity, the toughness of Miami Central, the physicalness of this game was going to be difficult for us to sustain. I’m so proud of our players for the way they fought to the end and hats off to Miami Central, a great football team and program.”

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Beymar Piraquive put Miami Central up 3-0 just 1:49 into the game with a 35-yard field goal, capping a 40-yard, eight-play drive. The biggest play on the drive was a a 30-yard run by Cedric Miller.

Atkin threw a short screen pass to Joyner and he ran 21 yards to put the Rockets up 10-0 with 4:42 to go in the first quarter.

Miami Central’s Anthony Jones (4) looks for running room as Bothell’s Cole Ford closes in. (Photo: Gary Curreri, South Florida Sun Sentinel)

When Bothell’s Bowers tried a pooch kick on fourth-and-2, Miami Central was called for roughing the kicker and that extended the drive. A few plays later, Bowers found Wilson in the corner of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown pass to cut Central’s lead to 10-7 at the beginning of the second quarter.

Joyner got his second touchdown catch with 7:18 remaining in the third quarter when Thomas completed an 11-play drive with a 26-yard strike, putting Central up 17-7. The score could have been even bigger but after Phillips had a 41-yard catch and a 10-yard catch to bring the Rockets to Bothell’s 1-yard line, the Cougars stuffed Anthony Jones on two straight runs to end the first half.

Atkin ended his team’s scoring with a 23-yard pass to Malik Vigille with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter. Central had 24 first downs to 16 for Bothell. The Cougars kept coming, however, scoring on a 23-yard pass from Bowers to Hanrahan with 18 seconds left in the game.

“Any time you play a nationally ranked team, the game is not going to be over until there are zero seconds on the clock,” Smith said. “That’s the way we play and that’s the way we expected them to play.”

The inaugural event at Florida Atlantic pairs state champions from Washington and Utah against state champions from Florida.