PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Much has been made of the players not at Nease this season, with good reason.
But even with new players lining up throughout the offense, it seemed the Panthers haven’t skipped a beat from last season to this one. Junior running back Enrique Ordonez and sophomore quarterback Aiden Phifer, making their first varsity starts Friday night in the Varsity 4 Game of the Week, looked like they fit right in with those strong Nease offenses of the past.
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Ordonez rushed for 194 yards on 18 carries, Phifer flashed accuracy and arm strength while passing for 261 yards and the Panthers defense stifled host Ponte Vedra for the opening 20 minutes on the way to a 38-28 victory in the 17th edition of the Battle of the Bridge.
It would have been natural to look at Nease (1-0), which spent much of last season with the state’s top ranking, as in a rebuild or at least a reload. The team lost all 2,375 of its passing yards from last season and all but 48 of its 1,500 rushing yards.
But Phifer, who connected on 19 of his 30 passes, rushed for a score and threw two touchdown passes of 33 and 30 yards to cousin Chase Phifer. Ordonez, who had 44 of those rushing yards last season, added a strong effort with a 51-yards scoring run to give his team a 17-0 lead in the second quarter.
“We graduated a lot,” said Panthers coach Collin Drafts, whose team has won three in a row in the rivalry for the first time. “When you graduate Nate Harry, your quarterback, (receiver) Maddox Spencer, (all-purpose player) Tyler Ghazanfari, I think that’s probably why people thought it would take us some time.
“But these guys have had a phenomenal offseason. Aiden Phifer has a ton of potential and made some big-time throws. (Receivers) Brayden Felder and Vernon Stephens are back. The offensive line won’t get a lot of credit but they and Enrique Ordonez — I tell you what, when we’re able to run the ball like we did tonight, it opens up (the run-pass option), and the sky’s the limit.”
The sky seemed like the limit for much of the game. Nease held a 3-0 lead after the first quarter but then broke open the game with a four-touchdown second quarter. The Panthers defense, meanwhile, checked the Sharks to no first downs until four minutes remained in the first half.
Ponte Vedra (0-1), in much the same boat as its rivals in terms of skill position losses, took time to get moving. The Sharks, ranked 10th in the Varsity 4 Super 10, were down 24-0 before picking up that first down on the way to their first score.
But the trouble was stopping Nease. Felder had 10 catches for 124 yards as Phifer picked apart a strong defensive unit, granted one that lost standout Talan Babin with an injury in the second quarter.
That troublesome 12-minute patch for Ponte Vedra included the Panthers scoring off a trick play when Derek Hardie took an end around and fired to Stephens for a 23-yard score and a 24-0 lead. Even after the Sharks put their first score on the board on Cole Rosendahl’s keeper, Nease marched down in less than two minutes and scored on the Phifer-to-Phifer 33-yards score for a 31-7 lead at halftime.
And Ordonez was a wrecking ball. After getting three yards on his first carry, he was checked to less than five yards on only three of his remaining 17 carries.
“It means a lot, all the work I’ve been putting in this summer, it feels like it’s paying off. It was amazing to get the win,” Ordonez said. “We’re not slowing down this season. We’re trying to pick up where we left off. Go 10-0 again, win state.”
Ponte Vedra got its passing game going with Rosendahl passing for 339 yards and two scores to go with two rushing touchdowns. But Nease front seven standouts Jacob Curry, Noah Hodge, Kru Casey and Devon Wentley were part of a unit that held the Sharks to minus-1 rushing yards, including five sacks of Rosendahl.
“I’m not going to say I thought we were going to be up 31-7 at the half, but not surprising because I do see our potential,” Drafts said. “But then we showed in the second half, we have some maturity issues, too many penalties, we let them kind of climb back in the game.”
Still, while Ponte Vedra added 14 fourth-quarter points, it was Nease gaining the trophy for the Battle of the Bridge, the fifth time the Panthers have done that, but the fourth time in the past five years.
“Love the energy, love the PV atmosphere,” Ordonez said. “Their fans and our fans get all wound up.
“My class can be the first class to win all four against PV. It means a lot for this program because of the dominance they had before.”
Nease 38, (10) Ponte Vedra 28
Nease, 3, 28, 7, 0 —38
Ponte Vedra, 0, 7, 7, 14 —28
N – Aric Davis-Baer 38 FG
N – Aiden Phifer 4 run (Tyler Rohrer kick)
N – Enrique Ordonez 51 run (Rohrer kick)
N – Vernon Stephens 23 pass from Derek Hardie (Rohrer kick)
PV – Cole Rosendahl 3 run (Noah Ash kick)
N – Chase Phifer 33 pass from A. Phifer (Davis-Baer kick)
PV – Jack Berquist 8 pass from Rosendahl (Ash kick)
N – C. Phifer 30 pass from A. Phifer (Davis-Baer kick)
PV – Rosendahl 2 run (Ash kick)
PV – Tucker Henderson 29 pass from Rosendahl (Ash kick)
Category: N — PV
First downs: 26 — 19
Rushes-yards: 33-236 — 19-(-1)
Passing: 284 — 339
Comp-Att-Int: 20-31-0 — 24-38-1
Fumbles-lost: 1-0 — 3-1
Penalties-Yards: 10-95 — 2-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — N: Ordonez 18-194, Quinn Bradfield 8-24, A. Phifer 7-18. PV: Alexander Winkles 5-8, Rosendahl 14-(-9).
PASSING — N: A. Phifer 19-30-0-261, Hardie 1-1-0-23. PV: Rosendahl 24-38-1-339.
RECEIVING — N: Brayden Felder 10-124, Stephens 4-74, C. Phifer 2-63, Nate Severt 1-16, Tyshawn Ford 3-7. PV: Berquist 5-106, Henderson 6-85, Winkles 5-56, Angelo Kekelik 2-34, Davitt Doherty 4-31, Caleb Stanton 2-27.