- November 16, 2025
Matanzas running back Wiley Conner rushed for 96 yards against Menendez. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Brady Putis (11) congratulates Ladarien Baker after Baker's touchdown catch put the Pirates up 14-0. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Offensive lineman Logan Walker (52) hoists Ladarien Baker into the air after the receiver scored in the third quarter to give Matanzas a 14-0 lead. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Ladarien Baker runs into the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown reception. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas receiver Jordan Schendorf tries to evade Menendez's Kayne Vona (3). Photo by Brent Woronoff
Wiley Conner looks for a running lane. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas running back Wiley Conner (34) rushed for 96 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas captains Cole Walkers, Jordan Schendorf, Kennith Roberts and Ladarien Baker. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Jordan Schendorf runs the ball after making a catch. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Antoine Jenkins rushed for 48 yards on six carries. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas fans congratulate the players after the 14-0 win at Menendez. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Pirates run onto the field. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Carla and the other Pirates' cheerleaders get ready for the team's entrance onto the field. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas senior Rylee Roberts is ready to lead his teammates onto the field as the Pirates' cheerleaders line up. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas cheerleaders Gracie and Naomi swing around before the game. Photo by Brent Woronoff
A cheerleader does a flip as the cheer team gets ready for the Pirates' entrance. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas cheerleaders Camry, Summer and Hadley get the flags ready for the team's entrance. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas football coach Matt Forrest sees the irony. A proponent of the pass-heavy Air Raid offense, Forrest’s team has been mixing in a heavy dose of the running game since it went into “playoff mode” a month ago.
“From an Air Raid guy, who'd have thought?” Forrest said of the Pirates’ trend toward a ball-control offense in recent weeks. “We're going to put our kids in the best position we can to go win a game, whether that's a spread offense or a ball-control offense or a mixture of both.”
On Friday, Oct. 24, the Pirates’ offense was on the field for most of the game in defeating host Pedro Menendez 14-0 on the Falcons’ Senior Night. For the third game in a row, Matanzas running back Wiley Conner had 28 or more touches.
The Pirates had just five possessions in the game, but they held the ball for 31 minutes, 1 second, compared to just 16:19 for the Falcons. Matanzas piled up 353 yards of offense — 215 passing and 138 rushing.
Conner rushed for 96 yards on 28 carries with a touchdown and caught a pass for 18 yards. Quarterback Cole Walker completed 20 of 27 passes for 215 yards — his sixth game with over 200 yards this season. Ladarien Baker caught eight passes for 86 yards, including an 11-yard touchdown reception. Andrew Bass caught five passes for 68 yards.
Matanzas (6-3) won its third straight game and snapped a four-game losing streak to Menendez, which lost its third game in a row to fall to 3-6.
The Pirates have one game remaining on Thursday, Oct. 30, at home against Palm Bay. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to be at Palm Bay on Oct. 31, but because of a conflict on Halloween, Palm Bay agreed to move the game to Matanzas on Thursday. Matanzas will have to win to have a chance to make the playoffs.
We've been in playoff mode for four weeks now. We won Round 1 against Mount Dora. We won Round 2 against Belleview, and we won Round 3 against Pedro. Round 4 of our playoffs is against Palm Bay on Thursday.
— MATT FORREST, Matanzas football coach
“We've been in playoff mode for four weeks now,” Forrest said. “Once we got beat by Mainland (on Sept. 25), and we knew the district championship was not going to happen, we were in playoff mode. We won Round 1 against Mount Dora. We won Round 2 against Belleview, and we won Round 3 against Pedro. Round 4 of our playoffs is against Palm Bay on Thursday.”
Matanzas had just two possessions in the second half against the Falcons, but those possessions combined to consume over 17 minutes of clock. The Pirates drove 95 yards on 17 plays, consuming 9:01 and ending with Baker's touchdown. And a 13-play drive consumed 8:08. That ended with an interception at the Menendez 5-yard line with 40 seconds left in the game, a result the same as a good punt.
The Pirates’ first-half drives ended with a missed field goal, Conner's 1-yard touchdown run and an interception in the Falcons’ end zone.
“There were times where I felt like maybe we could do this or that and try to break the game open, but kudos to our guys for just executing the game plan,” Forrest said.
Defensively, Matanzas held Menendez to 127 yards of offense. The Priates sacked the Falcons’ quarterbacks three times and totaled six tackles for loss. Jez McCoy had eight tackles, two for loss.
“It was all preparation,” said Matanzas defensive back Javonte Patton, who had seven tackles. “We watched a lot of film, and we knew what they were going to do.”
Playing ball control on offense allowed the defense to be fresh, Forrest said.
“When our defense is healthy and fresh, they're good,” he said. “If we go three and out and don't take much time off the clock, they get winded. And that's just a natural thing that happens in football. So, we were trying sustain long drives. And if we had to win the field position game, that was what we were going to do, just put them in spots they didn't want to be in and force them to pass out of it.”
The Falcons completed just six passes for 67 yards.
“We had to win this game and the next game too,” Patton said, adding that he’s glad the Palm Bay game has been moved to the Pirates’ home field. “I really didn’t want to make the long drive, and now, as a senior, I have one more home game.”
