Lely Manhandles Bull Sharks

Bonita Springs had a plan. They were going to run right at the Lely front seven, run the clock, and secure a home victory. And for a while it looked like it might work on a rain drenched and muddy field Friday night. But the Trojans brain trust made adjustments, and the Lely offense was an exercise in efficiency, and when the final gun sounded, it was Lely 40, Bonita Springs 10.

"They made an adjustment to play a little bit different coverage and get an extra guy in the box,” said Ben Hammer, Lely head coach. "So that helped a lot. And the resiliency of our kids. We're not that big, we're not extremely strong, but they just keep playing. And we've seen that in the last couple of weeks. The bend but don't break thing where they don't give up. They keep playing until they can't anymore. And that's nice to see out of a defense.”

The Trojans were down eight starters against Bonita Springs. Last week they were down nine starters. Hammer is thankful for a bye week next week prior to meeting perennial county power Naples.

“We're into a bye week,” Hammer said, "and we'll finally be able to get healthy.”

Bonita Springs did a good job of slowing down the Trojans ground game, led by freshman Nino Joseph. The hard-running freshman picked up 149 hard earned yards, but it was the Trojans passing attack that shone against the Bull Sharks. Starter Colin Raymond threw for 159 yards and two touchdowns. His back-up, sophomore Luca Rama, came in late when Raymond was shaken up and looked poised, connecting with junior Gage Rice on a touchdown strike.

“They do a great job catching and throwing the ball,” Hammer said. We've got the thing that's really nice is we've got six, seven, eight receivers that we feel pretty confident and putting out there. And with all the banged up that we've had or injuries that we've had, it's kind of just been nice to be able to rotate guys in and you can count on those guys to run the right route and make a play. Offensive Line did a decent job protecting and then Colin and Luca both do a nice job of putting the ball where it needs to be.”

Raymond, a senior, has now thrown for 530 yards, nine touchdown passes without an interception. Joseph now has 557 yards rushing, with three straight 100-yard outings. He replaced sophomore Jayvian Tanilus, who was one of the area’s top rushers with 454 yards in four games, before going down with a broken bone in his leg.

With the win the Trojans improve to 4-2. They’ve won three straight. Bonita Springs drops to 1-5. 

Now Hammer and his team begin to prepare for Naples (5-1).

“Going to watch some film,” Hammer said, "put together a game plan. First, we're going to enjoy this one tonight. We tell the guys all the time that winning in the sport of football is hard. So, we're always going to take the night and have fun and celebrate and enjoy it. And then we're going to get ready. The community will be excited with our game plan. I'm sure that Trojan Stadium will be rocking in two weeks and we're going to get prepared and get better and get healthy a little bit and line up and go to war."