Special Teams the Difference in Coconut Bowl

Everything was in place for a huge celebration Friday, October 17. The home stands at Trojan Stadium were overfilled with Lely supporters, young and old, anticipating the end of Naples’ 15-year mastery in the Coconut Bowl series. 

Alas, the Eagles had other plans, using a superior special teams performance to leave the Trojans smarting after the Coconut Bowl 52. The Eagles were celebrating their 38-24 win with the Coconut Bowl trophy in front of a darkened scoreboard in the north end zone. Conversely, Trojan players and coaches were consoling each other, profoundly disappointed in losing a game they felt they would win. 

But while the Trojans were scoring touchdowns—four of them—they were 0-4 on two-point conversions. The Eagles, on the other hand, were methodically kicking extra points after each score. And as the second half wore on, the Trojans found themselves down two scores instead of one, 35-24, with 8:56 left in the fourth quarter. Instead of feeling hopeful, the Trojans appeared deflated, especially after the Eagles added a short yard field goal by Jereka Collins with 4:40 left to salt away the win. 

“We make our special teams special,” said Rick Martin, Naples coach. “We want our starters that are on offense and on defense to play special teams and to take it seriously. When you have a weapon like Jereka Collins as your kicker and punter, you're getting touchbacks all night long and you're punting inside of your opponent's 10-15 yard line and flipping the field all night. And when we've got to make a big kick or a big field goal at the end of the game to stretch that lead, he nails it. I can't say enough about our special teams coordinator, Derek Woods, and our players.” 

A special teams play was arguably the turning point in the game. With Lely up 18-7 with 0:32 left in the first half, the Trojans elected to try a bloop kick with their backup kicker rather than kick the ball deep. Naples’ Eli Chery made a nice return that was made even nicer when Lely was penalized 15 yards for a horse collar tackle. With 4.4 seconds left in the first half, Jamar Jerome scored from 28 yards out to cut the Lely lead to 18-14 and turn the momentum in Naples’ favor going into halftime. 

"We went into halftime riding the momentum,” Martin said. 

Ty Collins injured his hip early on by laying out to make a spectacular 29-yard catch to set up Lely’s first score just two and a half minutes into the game. Collins somehow continued to play his all-out brand of football despite battling through intense pain. Collins, who handles kickoffs for the Trojans, was desperately missed in the kicking game, where Lely coach Ben Hammer was forced to use tight end Zephaniah Diamond as a backup kicker to do the one thing Collins couldn’t do with his hip injury. 

"Zeph didn't practice a whole lot this week,” Hammer said. "That's not on him. It's on me. Ty's hip was banged up and he couldn't kick, so we tried to bloop.” 

Hammer isn’t certain of the severity of Collins’ injury. 

"I mean, he came back and played three or four times,” Hammer said, "and it was hurting him. He's standing right here, so at least he can stand." 

Collins caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Brady Quinn after the injury. After scoring he limped, fell to his knees, then lay flat on his back before being helped off the field by the Lely trainer. 

“Ty is a tough kid,” Hammer said. “Ty's been great for us. He works hard. He does anything we ask. He's a warrior.” 

The Trojans were led by Collins, who picked up 118 yards on eight receptions. Quinn was 19-41 passing with 236 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Leading rusher Nino Joseph scored twice on runs of one and two yards. He picked up 54 tough yards on 22 carries. Romeo Sararo had six catches for 74 yards. Jayden Pino had two catches for 20 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter. 

Naturally, Hammer was disappointed in the loss to Naples. He said his players had to deal with adversity in the week leading up to the game. 

"Our kids played hard,” he said. "Played til the end. Obviously, Naples is a good football team. Well coached. We'll bounce back next week. The kids will come to work hard. We've got great kids. Our kids did have to deal with some distractions that were out of our control and out of our kids' control that weren't really fair to them. So I'm really disappointed by that.” 

Hammer wasn’t ready to pin the loss to Lely’s kicking game, or lack thereof. 

“It came down to not executing,” he said. "I felt like there were big penalties that really could have gone either way. We turned the ball over once. Then there were a couple mistakes in the kicking game." 

Hammer said the Trojans (5-3) will bounce back. 

"Of course, our kids will bounce back,” he said. "Our kids are tough. We'll start getting ready for Bonita Springs (2-6) on Sunday. All three defeats this year,  Calvary Christian, Sarasota Booker, and then Naples tonight...we just can't self-sabotage. We can't shoot ourselves in the foot and get behind the chains on either side of the ball. And you can't give up big plays.” 

Martin was impressed with the Trojans. 

“Hats off to Lely,” Martin said. "They put a heck of a team together this summer.  I mean, you can see it, man. They were a very good squad, well-coached. They took it to us tonight."  

Naples (6-2-1) travels to Port Charlotte (7-1) on Friday, Oct. 24.  Lely travels to Bonita Springs. Both games start at 7:30 PM.