Lely Outlasts Immokalee in High Scoring Slugfest

In the old days, football games were often called slugfests or shootouts. On Friday night, October 3, in front of a Senior Night crowd at Trojan Stadium, fans of Immokalee and Lely were treated to both.

While both teams are capable of putting points on the board, both can make the shoulder pads pop, too. But when the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Trojans were able to hold on for a 40-28 win.

In a game between two of Collier County’s three oldest schools—Naples High is the other—it seems only fitting that there were also a couple of old school references in the mix Friday night. Sports aficionados may know about Babe Ruth’s called shot in the 1932 World Series when he boldly called his home run against the White Sox. Lely’s Ty Collins called his shot Friday—on social media—when he said he would run for a touchdown on the opening play of the game. Well, like Babe Ruth, Collins made good on his called his shot, taking the first play from scrimmage 60 yards for a touchdown.

Then, with 3:20 left in the third quarter, Lely’s sophomore quarterback Brady Quinn and receiver Brandon Baptiste turned back the clock to 1982 when they did a pretty good job of recreating one of the most famous plays in NFL history—The Catch. Looking like Joe Montana and Dwight Clark in the 49ers' NFC Championship Game win against the Cowboys, Quinn scrambled, then lofted a 12-yard pass toward the back line of the end zone, where Baptiste leapt high to make an incredible catch, giving Lely a 32-20 lead.

"I cannot confirm or deny,” Ben Hammer said with a smirk, addressing Collins’ called shot. As far as The Catch? Well, 39-year-old Hammer was not even born when Montana and Clark made their magic.

“That's not one that you really like as a coach,” Hammer said. "It just kind of happens. Brandon goes up and gets a rebound. But what an unbelievable play. Brady extended the play, giving Brandon a chance. Our offensive line found a way to avoid a holding call. That's tough to do when a play's extended that long. It was a fantastic play.”

There were a lot of fantastic plays for both teams. After Collins electrified the crowd with his game-opening TD, the Trojans struck again when Quinn found senior Jayden Pino streaking across the back of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown to make it 12-0 with 9:04 left in the first quarter.

Then the Trojans appeared to make an outstanding special teams play when the Immokalee return man mishandled the ensuing kickoff and the ball squirted into the end zone. A scrum ensued and senior Roberly Gamboa recovered the ball deep in the end zone. But alas, in Florida high school football, a kickoff return that’s fumbled into the end zone automatically becomes a touchback, and the return team retains possession.

So instead of giving up a quick touchdown, Immokalee came to life offensively, only to be repulsed by the Trojans. Then, with 8:14 left in the first half, junior Lely’s Keegan Dixon pounced on an Immokalee fumble at the 50-yard line. On the next play, Quinn fired a pass to a wide-open Collins, who was streaking down the middle of the field. Collins caught the ball in stride and raced to the end zone. Collins then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 20-0 for Lely.

But Immokalee didn't fold. Instead, senior Cherlin Michel ran in from seven yards out to trim Lely’s lead to 20-7 with 3:52 left in the half. Then Joseph answered with a 12-yard touchdown run to put the Trojans up 26-7 with 1:28. Finally, with only 44 seconds left in the half, Immokalee receiver Marshon Jackson wound his way through the Trojans defense to cut the lead to 26-14 going into halftime.

Hammer acknowledged the talent of Immokalee’s Michel and Jackson but put in a plug for his stable of playmakers.

“Zero and one and 11 and six and 14 and 17 and five and three and 23 were all good for us too,” he said, referring to Collins, Joseph, Zephaniah Diamond, Romeo Sararo, Jude Mathurin, Noah Brown, Trevon Charelus, and Isaac Boykin. And those were just the players that popped into Hammer’s head. He could have easily mentioned number eight, Quinn, who threw for four touchdowns against the Indians. And on defense, number 10 Brady Thomas and number 50 Aydin Herrera were making plays all over the field.

“It’s great to have Brady back,” Hammer said, “he was injured last week against Barron Collier. And Aydin’s a great player."

Though Lely refused to allow Immokalee to get any closer than 12 points in the second half, they weren’t able to pull away from the Indians. A final highlight for the Trojans was a 40-yard TD run by Joseph, who worked for all of his 81 yards rushing. Collins finished with 199 total yards: 122 receiving and 77 rushing.

Hammer said the win was satisfying for his team, who took umbrage to an incident at football camp they attended with Immokalee earlier this year.

“They kind of pulled a quick one on us at the end of team camp,” Hammer said. "So, our kids have been waiting for this one for a long time. In a scrimmage, they pulled their kids off before the end of camp when our kids were ready to keep going. And it kind of rubbed our kids the wrong way.”

The Trojans also remembered losing to Immokalee last season, 47-44.

“We came up just short last year,” Hammer said, "so this was a good one to get back.”

Lely (4-2) travels to Aubrey Rogers (2-4) on Friday, October 10, at 7:30. Immokalee (4-2) hosts winless Palmetto Ridge (0-6).