Masters of the county: 'He-man' Ajede, Nei'cco Murphy combine for five touchdowns in Flagler Palm Coast's 42-7 win over Matanzas

The Bulldogs retained the Flagler County Championship Trophy in defeating the Pirates for the 15th time in 18 meetings.

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This story was updated at 2:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 24.

Ehimen “He-man” Ajede scored three touchdowns and safety Nei’coo Murphy — lining up in the offensive backfield and taking direct snaps as a wildcat quarterback — scored two more as Flagler Palm Coast continued its dominance over Flagler County rival Matanzas with a 42-7 season-opening victory on Friday, Aug. 21, at Sal Campanella Stadium.

Fans of FPC and Matanzas packed both the home and visiting stands, respectively, for the annual Potato Bowl, the biggest football game of the year in Flagler County, with the two high schools vying for the shared County Championship Trophy.

The result was similar to most games in the 18-year series with FPC winning its fourth Potato Bowl game in a row and its 15th against Matanzas in 18 meetings.

 “This is my senior year, and that’s four years of whooping these guys,” Ajede said. “I still love them, though. We’re still one county.”

Ajede rushed for 134 yards on 16 carries. His 67-yard third-quarter touchdown run gave the Bulldogs a commanding 34-7 lead.

“The corners just came. They crashed on me, and it opened up and I just took it to the house,” he said.

Matanzas took the early lead with sophomore quarterback Cole Hardy hitting freshman “sniffer” H-back Christian Perkins with a 16-yard touchdown pass with 4:55 left in the first quarter.

The drive started with a fumble recovery by Jayden McCoy at the 50-yard line. Matanzas kept the drive alive with a fake punt as Antoine Jenkins ran 28 yards to the Bulldogs’ 15-yard line for a first down.

But the rest of the game was all FPC. Murphy tied it up with a 4-yard touchdown run on the first of four second-quarter touchdowns by the Bulldogs. Sophomore quarterback Reid Pritt, making his first varsity start, tossed a 19-yard scoring pass to Trace Paffrath with 4:52 left in the half to give FPC a lead it would not relinquish.

The Bulldogs took advantage of two consecutive Pirates’ turnovers to score two more touchdowns before halftime, both by Ajede.


The first time I got in the end zone, my guys were pushing me. It was a little hot evening. It was humid. And I was like, He-Man, you got to push it, and the  touchdown came. [I] managed to get three tonight. I'm just so grateful. I thank God for it.
— EHIMEN 'HE-MAN' AJEDE

“The first time I got in the end zone, my guys were pushing me,” Ajede said. “It was a little hot evening. It was humid. And I was like, He-Man, you got to push it, and the  touchdown came. [I] managed to get three tonight. I'm just so grateful. I thank God for it.”

Matanzas fumbled a punt snap at its own 19, leading to Ajede’s first score, an 8-yard touchdown run with 2:41 left in the half. On first down of the next series, Caleb Shamblin intercepted a pass by Hardy to set up Ajede’s 7-yard touchdown run putting FPC up 28-7 with just under a minute left in the half.

“I think we let our emotions get the best of us in that first half,” Matanzas coach Matt Forrest said. “And it just seems like in this game, we have catastrophic errors. I feel like 14-7 is fair at halftime with us getting the ball back coming out of the half. But when it went to 21-7, and we got a young quarterback, and just a lot of things went wrong on that play, they capitalized on it [to make it 28-7]. It just gives a little different feel the rest of the game.”

Murphy, who rushed 10 times for 62 yards, took some pressure off of Pritt with his backfield presence. Murphy scored the Bulldogs’ final touchdown on a 3-yard run and added the 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter.

“That’s kind of the plan (to use Murphy on both offense and defense), but you have to be judicious about it,” FPC coach Patrick Turner said. “He started cramping in the fourth quarter, so you can't play him all the time, and we're fortunate enough that we got some really good players that play in his position (on defense). We just kind of put him in (on offense) for different things, and he does a great job.”

Turner said Pritt did a fantastic job in his first start after missing some early throws. Pritt finished 8-for-13 for 51 yards passing and a touchdown.

“Once he calmed down, he hit some and was really, really good,” Turner said.

Hardy's touchdown pass was the Pirates' only completion. Matanzas accumulated 127 yards rushing with Wiley Conner gaining 49 yards on 10 carries, Perkins running for 48 yards on three carries and Darwin Harris rushing for 27 yards on 11 carries. Conner, a 1,000-yard rusher last season, also played extensively on defense and shared carries with Harris.

“He's very strong,” Turner said of Conner. “You just have to gang tackle him. We preached it. We got to all get to the football. You got to wrap up his legs. He's a powerful kid, and he popped a couple on us, but we kept fighting. Our defense played lights out.”

The Bulldogs have been so dominant in the series that the 35-point margin was only their ninth largest point differential in their 15 victories. 

“It was fun,” Turner said. “I’m proud of the kids.”

 

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