Trojans Drop Thriller to Immokalee

Week Six was all about standing up for something. Lely head coach Ben Hammer was in Illinois standing up for his brother. His offensive coordinator - and former boss - Tim Thornton, was standing up for Hammer as acting head coach. The Trojan football team was standing up for their coaches and fans. And ultimately the Immokalee football team was standing up for their alumni Friday night, edging the Trojans 47-44 in a Homecoming night thriller.

You tend to notice when Hammer's not on the sideline. The tall, bearded ex-lineman has a commanding presence. His stand-in, Thornton, is much the same way. In fact, Hammer started his coaching career on Thornton’s staff in Illinois, where Thornton was a state championship-winning head coach.

“Ben’s brother's getting married back in Peoria,” Thornton said, "he flew up there this morning. He’s in the wedding. We talk family over everything. He's taking care of family.”

After giving up a 31-yard score on Immokalee’s opening possession, Lely struck back quickly when junior Zephaniah Diamond took the ensuing kickoff back 75 yards for a touchdown - and the shootout was on!

The Immokalee defense appeared to be keying on Lely’s sensational sophomore running back, Nino Joseph, Southwest Florida’s leading rusher. Even without any of his trademark breakaway runs, Joseph gained 218 tough yards on 30 carries and scored three touchdowns. Through six games Joseph has 1,515 yards and 24 touchdowns - that’s 252 yards rushing and four touchdowns a game. He's gained over 200 yards each of the past five games. 

Junior quarterback Carter Quinn was as steady as ever, throwing for 202 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw his first interception of the season. Quinn has thrown for 1,150 yards and 13 touchdowns through six games. He’s also run for over 200 yards at 8.5 yards a clip.

Thornton said the Trojans expect to score a touchdown and two-point conversion every time the offense steps on the field. They never kick extra points.

"We expect to go score eight points every time we take the field,” Thornton said. “We want to minimize the number of times that we do have to punt. It's just a different set of math for high school. We're going to go for two. We scored more conversions tonight than we could have if we were perfect kicking. That's just kind of who we are and what we believe in."

Thornton felt like the Trojans just ran out of time Friday.

"I think if we had about five more minutes, we come away with it,” Thornton said wistfully. "But we ran out of time so we didn't get it.”