Matanzas fights to the end in 42-37 loss to Bartram Trail

The Pirates' season ended with Ladarien Baker's leaping grab in traffic for a final touchdown.

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Ladarien Baker ran to the back of the end zone. Surrounded by three defenders, he leaped up to catch a 31-yard touchdown pass. It would be the final play of the season for Matanzas and the final catch of Baker’s high school career.

The Pirates scored two touchdowns in the final minute, including Baker’s grab with no time left, but came up short, 42-37, to Bartram Trail on Thursday, Nov. 13, at the “Ship” in a first-round game in the Florida Invitational Tournament.

“I thought our guys played really hard. We kept fighting,” Matanzas coach Matt Forrest said. "We just ran out of time."

The Pirates ended their season with a 7-4 record. Bartram Trail (4-7) advances to the Class 4A-7A FIT quarterfinals at Tate High on Nov. 20. 

The Pirates had won four straight entering the first-year consolation tournament.  

“We knew after we lost to Mainland (on Sept. 25), that we had to win out to get to this point,” Baker said. “I just know we all gave it our hardest. I know none of us left nothing on the field.”

Baker caught two touchdown passes to finish the season with seven TD catches. Quarterback Cole Walker threw four touchdown passes in the game to give him 22 for the season, breaking the Pirates’ single-season record. He also set the school single-season passing yards record with 2,387. And he broke his own single-game mark with 329 yards passing. 

Walker threw his final pass high enough where only the leaping 6-foot-5 Baker could grab it.


Cole (Walker) just threw it up, and I went to go get it. I just saw the ball in the air and I jumped over everybody.
— LADARIEN BAKER

“I knew I could go get it anytime,” Baker said. “Cole just threw it up, and I went to go get it. I just saw the ball in the air and I jumped over everybody.”

Baker is planning to play college football next year. He has offers from Bethune-Cookman, Presbyterian and Stetson and is also talking with South Carolina State.

“What a play,” Forrest said of Baker's final catch. He had a 49-yard touchdown reception earlier in the game and finished the contest with nine catches for 152 yards. 

“He's a phenomenal athlete, a phenomenal player,” Forrest said. “It shows how far that young man has progressed in our program for four years. I saw him as a JV guy. If things weren't going his way, he'd get frustrated and, wow, what a senior year for that young man. So. I'm very proud of him and his effort, and what he’s becoming and turning into.”


WILD SECOND HALF

Both teams made mistakes in the game. The Bears fumbled a potential touchdown catch in the second quarter and dropped a wide open pass in the end zone just before halftime to head in the the locker room tied 14-14.

But the turning point came early in the third quarter when a punt snap went over Alex Procek’s head. Procek hesitated as the ball bounced into the end zone and Bartram Trail recovered for a touchdown to go up 20-14. 

Procek kicked a 34-yard field goal to close the gap to 20-17 with 1:47 left in the third quarter. But Bartram Trail’s Joel Raggins returned Procek’s ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown. Bears sophomore quarterback Gavin Peterson ran for 203 yards and three touchdowns in the game and passed for another touchdown. His 17-yard scoring run put the Bears up 42-24 with 3:05 left.

The Pirates tried to come back with two touchdowns in the final minute, including Walker’s 3-yard pass to Thomas Larywon with 46 seconds left.

“As long as there's time on the clock, there's an opportunity,” Forrest said. “We were in a bad spot where we're down multiple possessions, and we tried two onside kicks and didn't get them, but came close to getting one. We called timeouts to try to get the ball back and got it (for the final possession).


It's not easy to keep fighting when things aren't going your way. So, I am proud of our program. I think that's a big step.
— MATT FORREST, Matanzas football coach

“It's not easy to keep fighting when things aren't going your way,” Forrest added. “So, I am proud of our program. I think that's a big step. I think if you pay attention to football and how programs progress, that is a giant step against a team that's a perennial power in Northeast Florida.”

Besides Walker’s two touchdown passes to Baker and one to Larywon, the senior also threw a 30-yard scoring pass to running back Wiley Conner. Walker played just one season for the Pirates.

“One year. I wish it would have been more,” Forrest said. “We were still only working at about a 70 to 75% clip (of the team's offense), because we had to do things he was comfortable with. He hasn't even been in our program for a calendar year. But he believed in what we were coaching, he believed in our philosophy and in our players around him. And he did a phenomenal job in distributing the ball. When he was on, it was special, and he was on more times than not.

“And the offensive line did a great job all season protecting him,” Forrest said. Between Cole and Wiley, and those four receivers (Baker, Larywon, Jordan Schendorf and Andrew Bass), and the offensive line, this offense was very special.”

 

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