Gators KO Seahawks 15-0
Island Coast’s defense was too much for Cape Coral once again.
The Gators reached the third round of the state Class 5A playoffs Friday night with a 15-0 win over their crosstown rivals.
Island Coast will travel to Plantation American Heritage next Friday for the Region 5A-4 championship and a spot in the Class 5A state semifinals.
In two games this season, the Gators (10-2) held a potent Cape Coral offense to a total of three points. Island Coast won 23-3 at Cape during the regular season on its way to the District 5A-14 title.
“They were very reserved with their play calling,” said Gators coach Wayne Blair. “I don’t know if they wanted to let (quarterback Dylan) Bontrager get free or something like that. They ran the ball well in the first quarter, they got some gashes and gaps on us. Our guys did a good job with rallying back up. Zack Lackman had a whole bunch of tackles, Shannen Welch had a ton of tackles from the back side.
“Bontrager, he’s a slippery kid. He does a good job as far as getting out to the perimeter and creating his own throwing lanes.”
“I didn’t want them to do anything spectacular,” Seahawks coach Larry Gary said. “Just play like you played all year. We just didn’t make the plays. That’s how it is.”
Two punts, a deflected punt and a fumble recovery helped the Gators score their 15 points.
Sophomore quarterback Kory Curtis threw a touchdown pass Friday, but he also came up big in a different way.
It was Curtis’ punting, not his passing, that played a major role in Island Coast’s first two scores.
“Kory Curtis did an amazing job, even when he was kicking against the wind,” Blair said. “That was big for our defense because that’s like playing with house money.”
After a Curtis punt pinned Cape Coral (9-3) back on its own 2, the Gators defense put the night’s first points on the board. Christian Wise sacked Bontrager in the end zone for a safety early in the second quarter.
Another Curtis punt downed inside the 5 led to a partially blocked punt. That set up Quad Jenkins’ 29-yard touchdown run with 3:19 left in the half. The conversion failed.
“That’s sometimes the price you pay when you have your quarterback doing the punting,” Blair said.
Both teams use their quarterbacks as punters.
Welch recovered Jordan Lewis’ fumble on the Seahawks’ 47 late in the second quarter. The Gators drove from there, with Curtis hitting Ryan Pulley on a seven-yard TD pass with 12 seconds left.
“It was supposed to be a jump ball, but I just ran it because (the Cape defender) was playing off,” Pulley said. “Caught it. Touchdown.”
Pulley was wearing the number 7 jersey of teammate Van Edwards instead of his usual number 6.
Edwards, Island Coast’s leading rusher and scorer this season, suffered a broken fibula in the Gators’ first-round playoff win against Sarasota Booker.
Both Pulley and Edwards had transferred to Island Coast from Riverdale.
“He and I are basically like brothers,” Pulley said of Edwards.
Zelan Lambert shouldered the running load Friday night in Edwards’ absence, gaining 210 yards on 31 carries. He had a 49-yard touchdown run negated by penalty. Jenkins added 62 yards on seven attempts.
Cape Coral had chances to score early and late. Both times the Seahawks came up short.
The Seahawks drove inside the Island Coast 5 on their first possession, but Welch made a tackle for a loss and Reshad Washington blocked Parker Stone’s 21-yard field goal attempt.
“Those were a couple of things that we were working on,” Blair said. “Especially on special teams, getting guys to come off the edge and do their job. Having a guy like Reshad with the speed that he has to lay out like that. A lot of those guys on our block team, they did their job.”
Late in the game, Cape’s Isaac Washington was stopped on fourth down at the Gators’ 6.
“We had opportunities,” Gary said. “We just can’t get it done. This team is not a team to make the plays when you’ve got to have a play against a good team. Take nothing away from them, but we’ve got to learn how to play against a good team to be a good team. It’ll take a little more mental discipline to get the job done.”
Blair will be on familiar turf next week against Plantation American Heritage, the defending Class 5A state champions. He came to Island Coast last spring after coaching at nearby Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson.
“We’re going to my back yard,” Blair said. “I know for a fact that Mike Rumpf (American Heritage coach) does a very good job with those guys. I have a bunch of my former players that are playing on that team. We’ve been watching film. We know exactly what they do. The quarterback is a four-star, five-star all-American.”
“We’re very excited, very excited,” Pulley said of next week’s regional final. “We’ve got to come to play, practice hard all week.
“There won’t be any Thanksgiving for us. We’ve got to put in the work.”
Cape Coral0 0 0 0 – 0
Isaland Coast 0 15 0 0 – 15
IC – Safety, QB tackled in end zone?
IC – Jenkins 29 run (conversion failed)
- IC – Pulley 7 pass from Curtis (Curtis kick)?