Team effort: Contributions from all three units lift Flagler Palm Coast to 23-0 triumph over Riverside

Garrett Tucker booted a 52-yard field goal, Brian Veal had 3.5 sacks and Ehimen Ajede scored two more touchdowns for the undefeated Bulldogs.

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Brian Veal, Reagan Melland and Ehimen “He-man” Ajede shared an interview after Flagler Palm Coast’s 23-0 victory against Jacksonville Riverside.

Two of the players contributed to the defensive shutout on Friday, Aug. 28, at Sal Campanella Stadium. All three of them contributed to the offense.

“We needed the defense tonight,” said running back Ajede, who rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns to give him five touchdowns on the young season. “Last week, it was our offensive game. Now it was the defense, but, one thing we’re trying to coach around here is unified teams win games.”


Veal had a monster game on defense with 3.5 sacks and eight total tackles. The edge rusher also carried the ball twice for 8 yards in the Bulldogs’ “heavy” formation. His 2-yard run to the Riverside 1-yard line on the last play of the third quarter set up a touchdown.

Melland, a defensive tackle playing fullback in the formation, then plowed into the end zone for the first offensive touchdown of his career to give FPC a 16-0 lead.

“It was a great moment,” Melland said. “Great blocks by the O-line and we just pounded it in there. We were running heavy for a good majority of the second half, and we were just killing out there. They could not stop us on heavy.”

After the Bulldogs turned the ball over on an interception on the first play of the third quarter, they started taking advantage of unbalanced sets and jumbo formations, FPC coach Patrick Turner said.

“We had to do some different things,” he said. “Complementary football — offense, defense and special teams — got it done tonight.” 

The Bulldogs improved to 2-0. They had opened the season with a 42-7 victory against county rival Matanzas. In two games, FPC’s defense has allowed just one touchdown.


Last week, it was our offensive game. Now it was the defense, but, one thing we’re trying to coach around here is unified teams win games.
— EHIMEN AJEDE, FPC running back

“I’m super proud of the defense, the effort they gave all night long,” Turner said. “We put [the defense] in some bad situations. [Riverside] got inside the red zone a couple times, but we never gave up any points.”

The big play on special teams was Garrett Tucker’s career-long 52-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to give FPC a 9-0 lead.

“Going into the half, I was expecting it to be a little deep,” Tucker said.

The distance was deeper than the Bulldogs had wanted, but the senior kicker said he felt calm.

“The swing was easy, through the ball,” he said. “I had hit (50-yarders) multiple times in practice, so it felt routine.”

Tucker’s previous career long was 37 yards.

“I would have liked to have gotten five more yards on the snap before that to give him a little better try,” Turner said. “But he put it through there. That was a great, great kick.”

On offense, sophomore quarterback Reid Pritt completed 10 of 19 passes for 114 yards. And the Bulldogs added 166 yards rushing. Nei’cco Murphy, playing option quarterback in addition to his primary safety position on defense, ran for 60 yards.

Senior receiver Logan Jacobelli made two outstanding catches of 22 and 29 yards from Pritt to help propel the Bulldogs to their first touchdown.

Jacobelli, known for his feet as a state champion sprinter on the track team, showed off great hands on those catches and his other four receptions in the game.

“He played like Superman tonight,” Turner said.

“I felt like I had to go up and get it,” Jacobelli said of the two key grabs on the first touchdown drive. “Without those catches, that drive goes a lot different.”

Jacobelli made both catches in man coverage against Generals cornerback Alton Drinks. The first pass was behind Jacobelli and he had to turn back to grab it. The second one was a perfect pass over the top. Jacobelli said he wasn’t always good at making such catches.

“Once I started going up and getting it, I realized it’s a whole new world up there,” he said.

Ajede finished the drive with a 21-yard touchdown run. He also scored the game’s final touchdown on an 8-yard run with 1:20 left in the game. The play had been a called run for Murphy.

“Shoutout to Nei-cco,” Ajede said. “He wasn't supposed to give me the ball. Before the play, he was like, ‘He-man I'm gonna give it to you.’ I was like, all right. He gave it to me and I scored.”

The Generals (1-1) arrived late, and the game started about a half hour later than scheduled.

“We were not emotionally high for this game like we were last week against Matanzas,” Turner said. “[Riverside is] an extremely fast and suffocating defense, so we knew that it was going to be tough.”

Linebacker Josiah Hathaway led the Bulldogs with nine tackles and blocked a field goal late in the second quarter to preserve the shutout.

“We just didn't want them to put any scores on the board,” Veal said. “We wanted to let them know that stepping into Flagler Palm Coast is probably not the easiest thing you could do.”

 

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