Lely Shines Against Stacked Estero in Spring Game

At a time when newly hired head coach Ben Hammer should still be working on getting his players’ names straight, he instead has them playing at mid-season form. At least that’s the way it looked Friday night at Trojan Stadium as Hammer’s fledgling program went toe-to-toe with Estero, who finished 8-2 last season and returns most of their roster. To put an exclamation point on an already impressive performance, Hammer called for a two-point conversion - which his team converted - to beat Estero 28-27 on a muggy night that felt like a regular season game in September.

While Hammer’s smile during his post-game meeting with his players was evidence of the pleasure he took in coaching his new team, he sees a lot of work left to be done. But he also sees a lot of potential.

“Execution-wise, we still have miles to go,” said Ben Hammer immediately after the game. "Our potential is sky high through the roof.”

Part of the reason for Hammer’s optimism is the play of sophomore-to-be Jayvian Tanelus, who looks like he’s ready to stake his claim as Lely’s next outstanding running back. Tanelus, whose brother Jakeem came off the bench to almost single handedly turn around Lely’s season with his running and passing last year, rushed for 189 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns.

"For a kid who's a freshman going to be a sophomore,” Hammer said, "he's a stud. What a coming out breakout performance.”

Hammer, a former lineman, made sure to praise his offensive line.

“Our offensive line,” Hammer said, “obviously the center, left guard, left tackle returned from last year, and they're really good. But the right guard and right tackle were freshmen and sophomore first-time players that we rotated through all night. And they aren't bruisers and didn't murder people, but they held up enough to give us a chance to win.”

Senior-to-be Colin Raymond shows that he’s made tremendous strides at the quarterback position, completing 18 of 22 passes, with two touchdown passes and one interception. Raymond had three starts as a junior.

"Colin Raymond played really well,” Hammer said. “He put the ball where it needed to be.”

Hammer also singled out Joshua Philogene, Wally Monpremier, and Ivan Cisneros for outstanding play. But again, Hammer promises the product this fall will be much better.

"We actually expected a lot more,” Hammer said. “There were snaps on the ground, the blocked punt, some of the big plays that we gave up defensively. That's not who we're going to be, and that's not what we expect. But the kids understand that. We'll watch the film, we'll get better. It's a tremendous momentum heading into the summer performance stuff and seven on seven seasons."