Lely Downs Palmetto Ridge With Nine Starters Out

Lely head coach Ben Hammer is a details guy. It's obvious with all the organizational work he’s done so far in his first year at the East Naples school. But it's pretty challenging to plan for an avalanche of injured starters. That being said, Hammer had his team ready for a winless Palmetto Ridge team Friday night at Trojan Stadium. The depleted Trojans earned a hard fought 20-6 win.

“We were actually without nine starters on Friday,” Ben Hammer said. “Besides Jayvian Tanelus and Isaac Callier, we should get everyone back.”

Sophomore Tanelus was one of the top running backs in the area, coming out of the gates with 454 yards rushing before getting sidelined in the fourth game of the season. Hammer said there’s a chance that Tanelus could return late in the season. But Callier, one of the team’s defensive leaders, is out for the season after suffering a season-ending Achilles tendon injury while running onto the field prior to Lely’s week three game against Gulf Coast. Before the season even started, standout junior receiver Jayce Cora went down with a collarbone injury and has yet to return to action. 

Like most coaches, Hammer believes in the next man up philosophy when it comes to injuries. Don’t dwell on what you don’t have. Get the players who are healthy ready to play.

One pleasant development for the Trojans is the play of freshman Nino Joseph.

“We've known in practice and even going to watch the youth games when we first got here that Nino is a special young man,” Hammer said. "He's tough. He understands the game. He's very mature for being a freshman in high school. He's a very hard worker. The guys respect what he does.”

What Joseph does is pick up yardage at 8.3 yards a clip. Since stepping in for Tanelus, Joseph has gained 408 yards and scored three touchdowns. Against Palmetto Ridge, Joseph raced 62 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage—just nine seconds into the game. With 5:06 left in the first quarter Joseph made several defenders miss on a 41-yard touchdown run to put the Trojans up by two scores.

Joseph ended up with 263 yards rushing against the Bears. In his first real varsity action he rumbled for 146 yards last week against Bradenton Manatee in week four. Combined, Tanelus and Joseph have accounted for 862 yards in the Trojans’ first five games.

Of course, the young running backs haven’t done it all by themselves.

"It takes the whole team to run the ball,” Hammer said. “Our offensive line, our receivers, our super back or tight end as we call them. Obviously, they're all doing a nice job opening up holes for the running backs. Our tempo also helps with that. Teams are still getting lined up while we're snapping the ball.”

Hammer’s encouraged with the improvement shown by senior quarterback Colin Raymond, who turned in another solid effort at quarterback against the Bears.

“Colin's a hard worker,” Hammer said. "He’s done a great job. Coach Ross Baker, our quarterbacks coach, does a phenomenal job of working with those guys, both in their decision making and their physical abilities. So yeah, Colin's done a great job of managing the game for us so far this year.”

Raymond has completed 68.9 percent of his throws this season for 381 yards and seven touchdowns. He has yet to be intercepted. Against the Bears he was an efficient 5-7 for 68 yards. The highlight came when Raymond hit senior Kevin Guzman in stride as he was streaking down the middle of the field for a 39-yard fourth quarter touchdown. The touchdown pass effectively ended any hopes Palmetto Ridge had for a comeback. 

Friday’s game, for the most part, was played between the tackles. With his pared down roster, Hammer is relying on a number of green players to step up under the Friday Night Lights.

“We're kind of an inexperienced, younger football team with as many people banged up as we have,” Hammer said. "There's a lot of people playing significant minutes regardless of their age, kind of for the first time in their career, which is great. It’s the next man up mentality and it’s an awesome opportunity for those kids on our team. It caused us to face a little bit of adversity in terms of execution. But the kids did a great job pulling through." 

The Lely defense turned in a classic bend but don’t break performance against the Bears, surrendering only one score, a five-yard first half touchdown run by Mark Whalen, who was Palmetto Ridge’s leading rusher with 106 yards.

“The defense played great in the second half,” Hammer said. "They're doing a really nice job with our bend but don't break mentality. Teams don't get extra points for gaining a bunch of yards on a drive. There were a couple of long and physical drives. Credit to Palmetto Ridge for those. But our defense found a way to get off the field before they scored.”

Hammer said the Trojans’ lack of size on the defensive line encourages opponents to stick to a ground and pound style of attack.

“We are a little bit smaller up front,” Hammer said, "and I would imagine that's going to be most people's plan coming against us, just to bash into us and be really physical.”

The Trojans have a daunting second half schedule, featuring Naples, Golden Gate, Barron Collier, and Immokalee. But Hammer’s only thinking about the next team on the schedule, Bonita Springs, for now.

“We’ve been bitten by the injury bug,” Hammer said. “That’s something that all teams face and it's part of the game, not something that we obviously anticipated. As far as like looking back at the first half of the season as a whole, the kids are buying into what we're doing, the kids are working hard, but at the same time we don't really stop to look back. We’re going to continue working to improve and get better and get ready for this week's Super Bowl. The Super Bowl this week is Bonita Springs. We're not going to leave any stone unturned. We're going to approach it one game at a time. And every game, every week, is the Super Bowl. And after that game is over, we'll get ready for the next one. I think it can be a little bit overwhelming, no matter who your opponents are, to look at a football season as a whole. So, we're just going to take it one week at a time and do the best we can to put the kids in position to be successful.”

At the end of the day Hammer is thankful for Friday’s win, that brings his record to 3-2.

"You always have to be excited about getting a win,” Hammer said. "Very, very pleased that the kids were able to face some adversity and overcome it, especially some of our young kids that were out there playing. We’re very excited for the kids, the community, the program to get a victory. Obviously, there's stuff to work on and stuff to get better at. But we're going to get back to work on being fundamental and getting better.”

Lely travels to Bonita Springs (1-4) on Friday, September 29, at 7 PM.