Prep football: Barron Collier squeezes past Lely in preseason conference game
Like most Southwest Florida high school football games do this time of year, the preseason game between Barron Collier and Lely had a weather-related delay.
In this one, the teams took nearly three hours to get rolling due to lightning in the area. The delay came after just four minutes of play in the first quarter.
The Cougars survived through the weather and a slow start to come out on top with a 26-20 win in a preseason game that had more on the line than usual.
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Due to scheduling issues, the match-up counted toward the Collier County Athletic Conference standings that all seven public schools play in each season.
"We put a little more importance in this game than you usually would in a preseason game," Barron Collier coach Mark Jackson said. "We kind of just slept-walked through the first half. We caught some breaks, but we've got to do better."
With just a few seconds on the clock, trailing by two touchdowns, Lely's Jean Joseph used every last second he had left to dodge through the Barron Collier defense for a 52-yard touchdown on the game's final play.
Just minutes earlier in the fourth quarter, Cougars receiver Jayden Rolle capped off an impressive game highlight reel with an interception return from the Trojans' 30-yard line with 6:22 remaining in the game.
The pick almost immediately followed Ryan Bloch's 30-yard field goal to push the lead to 20-14 in the fourth quarter.
After a first half mostly dominated by their opponents, Barron Collier somehow found itself on the winning side of their offensive mishap that ended with the Cougars in the end zone. A hand-off on the Trojans' 30-yard line that was intended for Rolle was fumbled after rushing about five yards, kicked around five more yards, recovered and fumbled again in the Cougars' end zone. Rolle was able to recover it for the unexpected touchdown to give Barron Collier a 17-14 lead with just a minute left before halftime.
Andrew Satizabal's 5-yard run and Bloch's extra point had drawn the Cougars within 14-10.
The Trojans got off to a hot start, but after taking a 14-3 lead struggled to keep focus.
"The boys competed hard, we just made way too many mistakes," first-year Lely head coach Fritz Jacquez said. "We need to learn how to refocus and stay sharp. When we went in on the rain delay and we got them focused cause everything we expected out of Barron Collier we saw. They just need to learn that when you go through adversity, you need to refocus yourself."
At the 8:40 mark in the second quarter, Henderson Francois scored from 25 yards out and Alondra Castillo's kick gave the Trojans the 14-3 lead.
With less than two minutes left in the first quarter, quarterback Jonis Dieudonne tossed a 29-yard pass to Luc Thelice for the Trojans' first points of the game.
After struggling to move the ball in their first series after the delay, the Cougars opted for a field-goal attempt from Bloch, and he connected for a quick three-point lead.
Players and fans lasted through the delay despite an apparent malfunction of the school’s lightning and the confusion from coaches, fans and administrators that followed. The all-clear came during the National Weather Service’s severe thunderstorm warning as lightning was still, very obviously in the area. Barron Collier made its way out onto the field in a downpour, but were quickly sent back off by referees.
The horn sounded once again as the storm began to clear up around 9 p.m., putting the game back into a lightning delay. The game made it by 10 minutes, with the all-clear finally coming at 9:50 p.m. just before the game would have been called at 10 p.m.
BARRON COLLIER 26, LELY 20
BC 3 14 10 0 -- 26
L 7 7 0 6 -- 20
First quarter
BC -- Ryan Bloch 37 FG, 6:51
L -- Luc Thelice 29 pass from Jonis Dieudonne (Kenneth Anyaehi kick) 1:25
Second quarter
L -- Henderson Francois 25 run (Alondra Castillo kick) 8:40
BC -- Andres Satizabal 5 run (Bloch kick) 6:36
BC -- Jayden Rolle 27 run (Bloch kick) 2:14
Third quarter
BC -- Bloch 30 FG 8:21
BC -- Rolle 30 interception return (kick failed) 6:22