Tritons raly to drop Wildcats 21-14
The Mariner Tritons’ win Friday night didn’t go down to the last play. It went past it.
Mariner had to survive two last chances by Estero to pull out a 21-14 victory on the first night of the regular season.
The Wildcats had the ball on Mariner’s 33 with 13 seconds left when Jahmel Myers intercepted Willie Neal’s pass at the 2 and ran it back 98 yards. However, Mariner was called for roughing the passer.
“It’s part of the game,” Mariner coach Travis Smith said. “I get emotional, the kids get emotional. We weren’t sure what the call was, but the officials did a great job tonight. My hat’s off to them. They did their job. Things happen like that.”
So, with no time left on the clock, Estero had the ball for one final shot from the 26. Neal’s pass was intercepted again, and this time the game was really over.
“They came together,” Smith said of his defense, which turned away two fourth-quarter Estero threats. “Coach (Keeth) Jones called a great game out there, put us in the right position we needed to be in. The defense really stepped up and got us the win.”
The Tritons defense also had come up big earlier in the fourth quarter. Alec Eschenwald set Estero up inside the Mariner 30 with a 35-yard punt return, but the Tritons stopped the Wildcats cold. Dustin Culver broke up a fourth-down pass to end the threat.
“That was a great job by the defense. Can’t say enough about the defense,” Smith said.
The Tritons spotted Estero a 14-0 lead with 8:16 left in the half, then exploded for three touchdowns.
“The kids realized (the Wildcats) were backing up a little bit, and they practiced what we preached all week long, and that was taking advantage of moments like that. When we saw they were on their heels a little bit we took advantage of it.”
The explosion was aided by a Wildcat implosion that included a 3-yard punt, a failed fake punt, and a fumble inside the Estero 20.
Cairo Juenegens threw two touchdown passes in the final six minutes, a 12-yarder to Chris Ramsey and a 17-yard score to Jahmel Myers. Juenegens ran in from a yard out for the other Tritons score.
The Wildcats’ top rusher in their preseason game, Wilkinson Glesil, missed the game with a left knee injury. That left the role of lead runner to Doug Gaymon.
Gaymon had all but two of the Wildcats’ 51 yards on Estero’s opening drive, including 27 yards on a fake punt. He capped the drive with an 11-yard run. Eschenwald added a two-point conversion.
Eschenwald had catches of 13 and 15 yards, the latter for a TD, as Estero made the score 14-0 with 8:16 left in the half. The Wildcats took advantage of a short field and an interference call on the drive.
The rest of the half belonged to the Tritons.
An even shorter field, set up by a 3-yard punt, brought Mariner within a point. Juenegens scored from a yard out, but the extra-point attempt was blocked.
The Tritons had gotten on the board midway through the second quarter on Ramsey’s TD reception.
Mariner missed a chance to take the lead late in the half. Estero lost a yard trying a fake punt inside its own 20, but the Tritons lost yards on a penalty and a 37-yard Noah Wren field goal attempt that went wide. The Tritons didn’t miss a second opportunity after Nick Simon recovered an Estero fumble on the Wildcats’ 17 with 22 seconds before intermission.
Juenegens hit Myers for the go-ahead TD on the next play.
“Obviously we shot ourselves in the foot in the first half,” Estero coach Jeff Hanlon said. “We took a couple of gambles that didn’t pay off. Even when we go for it on fourth down, we still stop them for a field goal. We get the ball with 22 seconds left, and miscommunication on the play and turn the ball over and give up that touchdown.”
Things got strange on the conversion. A fumble while attempting an extra-point turned into another fumble that turned into a 2-point Ramsey conversion when he covered the ball in the end zone.
“I can’t say we put that in the playbook, but I might have to add that one,” Smith said.
“The blotched whatever,” is all Hanlon could come up with to describe the conversion. “We’ll just let that one go.”
Two penalties stalled a Mariner drive in the third quarter, with Wren missing a 30-yard field goal.
Friday’s game started a half-hour late due to storms passing through Estero. Once the storm passed, the rest of the night was rain-free.
“We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to fix, but I think for a first game we did a pretty good job tonight,” Smith said.