Gators savor 35-0 win over North
Corey Murphy studied some history.
The Island Coast senior was well aware of his team’s recent dominance of rival North Fort Myers – four straight wins by a combined score of 185-13 – and he conceded that some Gators had assumed all they’d need to do to beat the visiting Red Knights Friday night was simply show up.
It didn’t take long for that approach to be proven faulty.
“Everybody was coming out and thinking it was just going to be regular old North, but they came out pushing hard and we had to get our mind right,” Murphy said. “We started settling down, buckling down and executing our plays, and from there everything went right.”
Did it ever.
After their first five possessions generated zero points, zero first downs and minus-11 yards of total offense, the host Gators proceeded to score touchdowns on the next five drives and ultimately escaped with a deceiving 35-0 victory over the Knights in a District 5A-14 game.
“After the first drive when we didn’t get a first down, we knew it was going to be different,” said Murphy, who was held off the stat sheet until he caught a four-yard touchdown strike from Kory Curtis with seven seconds to go in the first half. “It was just a whole new look for them. I give props to (new coach) Earnest Graham, he really did transform North. It’s not the same, so we had to execute hard.”
The Knights held the Gators to four yards on three plays before a missed Curtis field goal on that first drive, then forced four consecutive three-and-outs on which Island Coast managed five, zero, minus-4 and minus-16 yards, respectively. The Gators’ defense matched them zero for zero, however, forcing two punts, ending one drive on downs and intercepting three North passes – two thrown by Jake Duff and another by old friend Quinn Bourque, who was Island Coast’s quarterback last season.
The Gators went 65 yards in seven plays capped by Quad Jenkins’ touchdown run to begin the third quarter, and the nail-biter transformed into a blowout with successive scores on a 23-yard catch by Murphy, a four-yard run by Zelan Lambert and a 10-yard pass from Curtis to James Washington.
The Lambert-Washington touchdowns were set up by fumble recoveries by the Gators’ Donovan Gayle and Shannen Welch. The Knights’ final full possession was snuffed out by turnover No. 6, which came when Bourque was picked off over the middle by senior linebacker Zach Lackman.
“Going into halftime we had to stay up and stay positive, and when we did that you saw what happened,” Lackman said. “They’re a tight rival, there’s a bunch of guys on their team that we’ve known for a long time and we thought, if we won this game, the district was pretty much sealed up, all we have to do is get that one more win.”
Indeed, the win moved the Gators to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in district, meaning they can clinch the 5A-14 crown next Friday night with a win at Cypress Lake. The final district game is a week later at Dunbar before a non-league finale at Naples on Nov. 7.
North Fort Myers fell to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in district play, and can challenge for the second 5A-14 state playoff berth with home wins over Lemon Bay and Dunbar in its final two district games.
“We were basically playing for our first round in the playoffs, and getting home-field advantage,” Lackman said. “It was more of a silent thing. The priority was getting this win here and going one week at a time, but in the back of our heads we knew that’s what we wanted to do and I think that was a great motivator for us at halftime.”
North Fort Myers0 0 0 0 – 0
Island Coast0 7 28 0 – 35
IC – Murphy 4 pass from Curtis (Curtis kick)
IC – Jenkins 29 run (Curtis kick)
IC – Murphy 23 pass from Curtis (Curtis kick)
IC – Lambert 4 run (Curtis kick)
IC – Washington 10 pass from Curtis (Curtis kick)