- November 12, 2024
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Mainland pulled off a 42-27 win against DeLand on Friday, Oct. 4, after the Bulldogs bombarded the Buccaneers with three touchdowns in the first 10 minutes of the game.
DeLand freshman wide receiver Taihj Moore scored on a 95-yard kickoff return on the first play of the game and added an 84-yard touchdown run later in the first quarter. Christian Baez caught a 23-yard touchdown pass in between Moore's two scores as DeLand jumped out to a 20-0 advantage.
Fifteen seconds later, Bucs’ quarterback Sebastian Johnson handed off to Edward Williams who ran up the middle for an 80-yard touchdown. Williams scored again in the second quarter and ran 55 yards in the fourth quarter for the final touchdown of the game. He rushed for 261 yards on 17 carries against DeLand’s defense, helping the Bucs improve to 2-5 on the season with their second consecutive victory. They have scored 85 points in the two wins.
I am so proud of the fight ... If we play like this, from this one on in the season, we might be in the [championship] come week 15. That’s all I’m going to say.
— JERRIME BELL, Mainland head coach
“I am so proud of the fight,” Mainland head coach Jerrime “Squatty” Bell said. “Some opponents you have to bring it to. This is one of the opponents you have to bring it to. Way to play Mainland Buc football. If we play like this, from this one on in the season, we might be in the [championship] come week 15. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Mainland wide receiver Jameil Patrick shifted the trajectory of the game with a 31-yard catch following DeLand’s second touchdown and two long punt returns in the second quarter — one for 61 yards that put the Bucs on DeLand’s 15-yard line and another for 46 yards which landed them on the 19-yard line.
Patrick caught four passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns. This is his first game playing with his Buccaneer teammates against the DeLand varsity squad he played with his junior year.
“I came into this game with a point to prove,” he said. “I didn’t get the playtime I wanted or the respect playing behind Javon Ross — great player. I felt like I had to prove the coach wrong for not playing me last year. Just showing what I could do and what he missed out on.”
The Bucs are off until Oct. 18 when they travel to Palm Bay Heritage. Moore said he is going to use the time to work on footwork, getting faster, and how to create space.
“I love my teammates — they are my brothers,” he said. “They took me in last year like I had always been there. We just need to take care of our bodies this bye week, keep our heads down and keep winning. Let’s go into this playoff and go to the state championship.”
Bell said this game was personal for Patrick. Any time he got the ball in his hands, he tried to score.
“We knew he was going to be great,” Bell said. “We knew he was going to be dynamic in the return game. We knew he was going to be dynamic in the screens. Having him out wide opened it up for Edward Williams to run for over 200 yards. It opened up for Christian Cooper (three catches) to be good — opened up for Phillip Moore (two catches) to do good. We feed off of each other.”
Mainland linebacker Myron Shafer had 11 tackles — seven solo, four assists and three for losses. The Bucs stretched their winning streak against DeLand to four straight, but Shafer said the Bulldogs are always a tough opponent.
“It has never been easy,” he said. “In 2022, they did the same thing — returned a kick first play, went up 14-0, and we rallied back and won the game (42-29). When they returned in this game and scored, then scored again and went up 20, I told my guys, ‘Don’t worry, we got this. If we stay locked in we will win this game,’ and that’s what happened because I know what happens.”
Shafer said his voice is his biggest asset on the field. He said when he is leading, the Bucs cannot be stopped.
“It comes from hard days and studying film,” he said. “It comes from Monday through Thursday grinding it out, then Friday we know what to do. We are a gritty team. When we get on the field, we are compassionate. We play with a bunch of fire. We won our last two — that just comes from clicking. With a new head coach and new players, we just had to bond and get closer.”
Shafer said in the final three games of the season, the Bucs will start each game with more fire.
“We are going to fight four quarters every game,” he said. “Two quarters don’t matter. There are four quarters in every game. We are going to work on being closer and work on the little things that we don’t take seriously at practice that applies to the field every day.”