Friday Roundup: Naples, Bishop Verot dominate in spring football
Bishop Verot 44, Estero 7
A battle between future district opponents went the way of the Vikings as they scored 44 points unanswered to down the Wildcats on Friday night.
After a first quarter exclusively played by junior varsity players – won by Estero 6-0 – the Wildcats got off to a quick start, putting a drive together by churning out yards on the ground, capped by a 2-yard quarterback keeper by Matthew Wilson.
Estero wouldn’t cross midfield again, as the Verot defense stiffened for the rest of the contest.
The Vikings surged ahead in the first half with a 3-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Carter Smith and a 41-yard field goal by Deaglan Camron for a 10-7 lead at the half.
The third quarter saw a flurry of scoring from the Vikings. Receiver Trevontay Watts caught a 53-yard deep ball and took a screen pass from Smith 39 yards for a touchdown. Tight end Timmy Lawson also caught a Smith pass and scampered down the sidelines for a 70-yard score, while running back Jeremiah Dean ran for a 33-yard touchdown.
Verot running back Bobby Leckler concluded the night for the Vikings with a 14-yard tackle-shedding touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Bishop Verot head coach Richie Rode felt that his team end their spring on a strong note.
“We kind of just wanted to end it and see some growth and end it with an exclamation point and they responded,” he said. ‘They played really well.”
The FHSAA reclassification will have the teams face off again in the regular season in Class 2S-District 16.
What 3 things did Bishop Verot learn?
1. The team won’t have Chris Graves in 2022, but they look plenty dangerous. The Miami commit was a standout player on the Viking offense, but replacing him won’t be a huge concern given Friday’s output.
Smith connected with the speedster Watts for two passes of 92 yards. He found Lawson five times for 120 yards. Smith finished the game 10-for-16 for 241 yards and three touchdowns, plus a rushing score.
“(Graves) was incredible, and I’ve said before, we’re going to have to replace him with a couple guys, but, fortunately, I think we’re finding our couple guys,” Rode said. “The more guys you have, the more deadly we’ll be. Our problem last year is we were too one-dimensional.”
2. Did the Vikings find their running back in the linebackers room? Jeremiah Dean, used to delivering blows on defense, had an outstanding night running the ball – accumulating 165 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
And that was on a day when Dean wasn’t feeling well, according to Rode.
“He’s always been a linebacker, but we needed him this spring, and I think he’s taken a liking to it,” Rode said. “He ran really, really hard. … He’s just going to continue to get better. He’s new at it, and he did phenomenal.”
Rode added that a consistent ground game would alleviate the pressure on Smith, who was the team’s leading rusher last year.
3. Having a full offseason together paid off. Rode was hired at Verot last summer, limiting his time with the team before the start of the season.
Rode believes that Friday’s performance was proof of the value of the time the team had together compared to a year ago.
“I think they controlled the line of scrimmage tonight on both sides of the ball for the most part, so I think we did take advantage of the gains we made in the weight room,” he said.
What 3 things did Estero learn?
1. The defense gave up too many big plays. The Wildcats surrendered five plays of 30 yards or more – four of those coming in a lopsided third quarter.
For Estero head coach Darren Nelson, it just meant that the team will have a lot to learn from ahead of the regular season.
“(Bishop Verot) hit some explosives in the third quarter, and that was a big message to our guys is we need to learn from that, and that’s one thing that we’re hopefully going to take away from this game is how to answer, how to respond, how to get better throughout that game,” he said.
2. The Wildcats lost some talent on offense, but Jonathan Quintanilla shined at running back. Kirk Talley and Kendrick Agenor were a big part of the team’s success in 2021, and their absence showed on the field as Estero was unable to put together drives after their first and only score of the night.
However, Quintanilla was a bright spot, going for 56 yards in the first half.
The Wildcats plan to take a committee approach to the position this year, but Quintanilla earned his stripes on Friday.
“I think he did really, really well,” Nelson said. “I think he proved that he’s going to be a capable ball carrier.”
3. Mental toughness is key. That was an area Nelson said he would like to see the team improve after they found themselves unable to respond to the firepower of the Vikings.
The first half of the game was competitive but got out of hand in a hurry in the third quarter.
“We found out we can play with them and when they make a play on you, we’ve got to be mentally strong enough and impose our will,” Nelson said. “I felt like it just snowballed and then we didn’t respond very well.”
— Dustin Levy
Naples 40, Cypress Lake 0
The best part about Friday night’s spring game for Cypress Lake and Naples is that it doesn’t count. The Panthers could generate no offense and the Golden Eagles lost three fumbles and took uncharacteristic penalties that left both coaches ready to get to summer.
“We definitely need to get in the weight room this summer,” Cypress Lake coach Joey Mendes said. “We’ll work on getting bigger and stronger and getting our kids ready to play in the fall.”
More: Thursday football: See what we learned about the teams that played their spring games
More: Wednesday football: What we learned from Gateway Charter, LaBelle, Mariner, Oasis in action
Naples did pick up touchdown runs of 2- and 8-yards from Kendrick Raphael, a 2-yard TD run from quarterback Jack Melton and a 40-yard pick-six from Ebenezer Bouzi to build a 26-0 halftime lead. The Golden Eagles also lost three fumbles and has three pre-snap penalties on the same extra-point try after their second touchdown that led to an incompletion.
“Unfortunately, I think our takes are we have a lot of work to do,” Naples coach Rick Martin said. “I wasn’t happy with the offensive production. I wasn’t happy with the fumbles. I wasn’t happy with the penalties on both sides of the ball, the personal fouls, those are inexcusable for us, so we have a lot to work on.”
What 3 things we learned about Naples
1. Jack Melton puts claim in to be the starting QB. The rising junior made some nice plays, moving the chains and scoring a touchdown with his legs. He went 2-of-5 passing in the first half, including dropping a perfect sideline go-route to William Militello for 30 yards. He hit the same pass to Jesse Persad-Tirone for 35 yards the play before but it was called back due to a penalty.
He did fumble once, a poor pitch led to another and had some late reads on handoffs that were a little dangerous, but Martin pointed out he’s still growing.
“We have a young quarterback who did not get a lot of reps last year so we have to let him work through that a little bit. Unfortunately, we have some pretty good opponents coming up here in the fall. We don’t have a whole lot of time to have him work through it but we’re going to get it right.
“I love Jack, he’s a great kid and he’s going to be really, really good for us it’s just now that he’s the guy, I don’t know if he was nervous or what tonight, but I know he got better just because of the reps that he took.”
Martin said Melton received most of the snaps this spring over Barron Collier transfer Niko Boyce since Boyce could not play in the spring due to being a transfer.
2. Big expectations in the backfield. Kendrick Raphael and Isaiah Augustave kept the chains moving as they combined for 111 yards on 15 carries in the first half and Raphael added his longest run of the night of 26 yards on the last play of the third quarter. But those numbers were not up to the team’s standards.
“You know what was crazy, those guys hold themselves to a high standard, we were actually pretty upset tonight with the production of those two and I say we because as a whole, it’s our running back coach, coach (Manny) Morgan, Kendrick and (Isaiah), they hold themselves to a really high standard. When things aren’t clicking, they get pretty upset.”
3. Little package provides a punch. Rising junior running back Martavion Young may only be 5-foot-4, but he’s quick and hard to take down. He replaced Melton under center late in the third quarter and carried the ball three times for all 70 yards on a drive, including a 2-yard TD. Martin praised his work ethic and sees a role he could fulfill next season.
“Marta is one of them dudes, he’s the third back behind these two big dudes that are getting all these offers and looks and publicity. Only our guys, the guys in the locker room, know that Marta is the real deal. He works his butt off. He’s small in stature but he makes up for it in doing what we ask him to do, being coachable and you saw the results tonight.”
What 3 things we learned about Cypress Lake
1. There’s a long way to go on offense. In the first half, the Panthers ran the ball 18 times for minus-16 yards and went 0-for-4 passing with two interceptions. Cypress Lake only had one offensive first down in the game, on a E.J. Codie run in the third quarter. The rest were off Naples penalties.
On most plays, Cypress Lake ball carriers were hit at the line or in the backfield.
“We need to find our identity on offense,” Mendes said. “We’ll go back and look at the film and see what plays the kids liked and felt comfortable running and build from there.”
2. The defense showed some promise. Mendes thought his linebackers and safties did a good job crashing down on the line and making plays, especially Chartrael Jenkins, Eli jones, Kendrick Moore and Jlishawon Daniels.
“That’s a tough offense to stop and we did a good job making them drive and limiting the big plays," Mendes said. "On that last (Naples) drive they showed a lot of fight. They could have laid down and let them score, but they didn’t. That’s all you can ask for is to compete and let’s finish.”
3. Special teams need some help. Cypress Lake had a punt blocked deep in its own end on its second possession that was recovered at the 2. Raphael scored on the next play. Naples came close to blocking another several times and at least three times the Panthers did not have enough punt-team players on the field when they lined up and had to have a player dash out to fill the gap.
— Ed Reed
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Football: Naples shut out Cypress Lake while Bishop Verot pulled away from Estero
