Slugfest and Heartbreaker for Lely Football

Lely Head Coach Ben Hammer didn’t have much to say after his Lely Trojans. His face told the story. His team had just gone toe to toe with Gulf Coast, pulling ahead with 2:29 left in the game, only to fall 14-9 when Gulf Coast scored with 16 seconds left on the clock.

Lely’s heartbreaking 14-9 loss to Gulf Coast was like the Thrilla in Manilla. But instead of Ali and Frazier, it was the Trojans and the Sharks trading body blows in the thick humidity and 90-degree temperatures.

“Disappointing,” a dejected Ben Hammer said. “We've gotta have better discipline. We've got to have better focus. It starts with the head coach, goes down to all the other coaches and the players. We left way too much on the field. We went three and out too many times. Missed too many tackles, too many penalties, mistakes on special teams. We've just got to work to get better."

It was all defense for the first 16 minutes of the game. Gulf Coast struck first when Randall Williams scored on a three-yard run to make it 7-0 midway through the second quarter.

"Gulf Coast is a physical team,” Hammer said. "We knew that coming in. We're still down an offensive lineman from the Bishop scrimmage. Everybody played hard. But we've got to have better focus."

Lely answered with a booming 41-yard field goal from Emiliano Nicasio in the third quarter that would have been good from 51.

The rest of the game featured more hard-hitting—and some hard-charging runs from both teams. 

It looked like Lely had put the game away when senior quarterback Colin Raymond found speedster Joshua Philogene in the corner of the end zone with a 25-yard touchdown pass. The extra point kick was blocked, but the Trojans were up 9-7 with 2:29 left in the game.

But Gulf Coast drove right down the field, aided by two critical penalties on the Trojans. First, the Trojans were flagged for pass interference, then they were flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty when they hit the Gulf Coast receiver out of bounds.

"We had them fourth and long,” Hammer said, "personal foul, late hit."

Gulf Coast’s big running back, quarterback Christopher Jimenez, took over on the final drive. He was a load to tackle and made a couple of clutch throws down the stretch. He ended up with 162 hard-earned yards rushing.

Lely found the going tough against Gulf Coast. Last week, Lely ran roughshod over Riverdale. They had to fight for every yard against Gulf Coast. Sophomore running back Jayvian Tanelus, who ran for 241 yards last week, managed to crank out 148 yards against a defense focused on stopping him.

“The positives are hopefully that they will work harder,” Hammer said. "There will be more discipline, and we'll play with better focus. All credit to Gulf Coast - they played hard. They have a good coaching staff, but we left too much out there. We've got to be better.”

Lely travels to the East Coast to face Miami Monsignor Pace at 7:30 PM on Friday, September 8th. They return to Trojan Stadium on Friday, September 15th, against perennial state power Bradenton Southeast.