Prep football: Immokalee shakes off slow start to dominate Lakewood in regional final

Immokalee didn’t seem like its usual dominant self early on in Friday night’s Classs 5A-Region 3 high school football championship game against St. Petersburg-Lakewood.

Gifted outstanding field position inside the Lakewood 30 twice – once after recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff and another time on a Stra Mervelilus blocked punt – the Indians’ usually sparkling offense did nothing with it and the game remained scoreless after one quarter.

That’s where Fred Green and Abraham Alce came in.

On the first play of the second quarter, Green busted loose for a 61-yard gain to the Lakewood 5. Two plays later, Alce punched it in and the Indians were on their way to a 28-point quarter to spearhead a convincing 42-14 win.

The victory gave the Indians their first regional championship since the 2012 team advanced to the state championship game. Immokalee (12-0) travels to Plantation-American Heritage to take on the defending state champs Friday. Heritage pulled out a 58-57 win in triple overtime against Cardinal Gibbons on Friday night.

“We just needed to start playing Immokalee football,” coach Rodelin Anthony said. “I think early on, everyone was focused on making a big play and not concentrating on the process of the drive. Take a little bit here, a little bit there and then ultimately bust one loose.”

Green led a balanced rushing attack with 109 yards on 14 carries. Malcom Jackson added 77 yards on 8 carries and a TD, while the thundering Alce picked up 40 yards on 8 carries and scored twice.

“We couldn’t let them come in here and try to intimidate us,” Jackson said. “We just had to play Immokalee ball. We knew we were more physical than them.”

Prep football: Abraham Alce, Immokalee run away from Dunbar in second half

Anthony admitted his team may have been trying to do too much early on.

“We’ve been so used to three plays, touchdown, two plays, touchdown,” Anthony said. “Early on it was like, ‘Holy smokes, we didn’t score in four plays, what’s going on?’ It was a matter of us understanding that you don’t get three plays and a touchdown.

"Sometimes it’s three series and a touchdown. But there’s three phases of the game, and with the way our offense works, you’re used to seeing 50 points a game, but there’s such a thing as ugly Ws, from the scoring standpoint, but when you look at the little nuances, this was a battle back and forth and we were able to wear them down.”

The Immokalee defense certainly did its job early, keeping the game scoreless while the Indians’ offense slumbered. But as it often happens with Immokalee, once the floodgates opened, the Spartans found it hard to close them.

Shedro Louis put an exclamation point on the first half, taking a handoff from quarterback RJ Rosales and breaking free for a 44-yard touchdown run as time expired, putting Immokalee up 28-7.

“We were basically trying to get it into field goal range, and Shedro being the X-factor that he is, took it upon himself to score,” Anthony said. “That’s all heart. People say ‘Shedro’s so talented’ which he is, but he’s all heart and passion. When you want that score, you get them.”

Louis also scored on a nifty 27-yard fourth-quarter touchdown reception from Rosales, catching the ball at the line of scrimmage, shaking out of a tackle and juking a defender to break into the open field. Louis also was part of a fine defensive effort in the secondary, breaking up several passes, including a pair of near-interceptions in the fourth quarter. Charles Toombs and Andrew Rene recorded picks for the Indians, as Immokalee held Lakewood to 76 passing yards on the night.

Prep football: Dynamic Fred Green leads unbeaten Immokalee into regional title game

“We knew what they were going to do all game, little outs and short passes,” Louis said. “We knew all we had to do was stop the running game and the scoreboard says it all.”

Louis says it’s no surprise the Indians got better as the game went along – it’s simply what they do.

“All those 5 a.m. practices, the running, all the work,” Louis said. “And then you had Hurricane Irma coming in, which stopped us playing Naples, a game the seniors really wanted to play. All that built us up. We came in tonight knowing this couldn’t be our last game. We had to play like there was no tomorrow.”

IMMOKALEE 42, LAKEWOOD 14

L             0             7             7             0             -              14

I              0             28           0             14           -              42

Second quarter

I -- Abraham Alce 5 run (Elias Cuevas kick), 10:52

L -- Troy'von Johnson 48 pass from Gregory Spann (Matthew Hamilton kick), 7:48

I -- Jordan Hall 37 pass from Rj Rosales ((Cuevas kick), 6:48

I -- Alce 7 run (Cuevas kick), 2:25

I -- Shedro Louis 44 run (Cuevas kick), :00

Third quarter

I -- Spann 6 run (Hamilton kick), 1:37

Fourth quarter

I -- Louis 27 pass from Rosales (Cuevas kick), 6:40

I -- Malcom Jackson 19 run (Cuevas kick), 2:55