Nightmare first quarter derails Dr. Phillips football's undefeated season hopes

Sports
High Schools

The opening quarter of Dr. Phillips High's Week Nine matchup against the visiting Eagles of Edgewater High was a nightmare, to say the least.

Following a game-opening drive three-and-out by the Panthers (6-1) offense, Edgewater (7-2) got on the board first with a short field goal to make it 3-0. The next possession was another stalled offensive drive by DP, but this time, the Eagles offense didn't even step foot on the field because Edgewater snatched up a short punt and returned it for a TD, 10-0.

The bad times kept rolling for Dr. Phillips in the first quarter, as the following offensive possession resulted in a pick-six. Eagles senior safety Ja'Torian Mack, a three-star prospect committed to Appalachian State, caught the interception and returned it 35 yards for the Edgewater touchdown, making it 17-0.

"I saw what I feared tonight; it looked like we had been off for 17 days," Dr. Phillips coach Rodney Wells said following the 45-18 home loss. "We haven't played since Oct. 1, so it felt like everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong: Turnovers, we tackled like crap, we blocked like crap. We turned the ball over, which we hadn't done pretty much all year. It was just bad football. We looked like we had been off for 17 days."

Dr. Phillips receiver Mykel Calixte (No. 4) extended his reach for a sideline catch.

Dr. Phillips showed fight throughout the rest of the game, especially in the second quarter, when two touchdown passes by senior quarterback Stanley Anderson-Lofton — the first to Central Michigan commit Mykel Calixte and the second to Cameran Dixon — brought the scoreline to 24-12.

However, Edgewater responded with TDs of its own on both sides of halftime to make it 37-12 in the third. Anderson-Lofton threw one more touchdown on the evening, finding senior wideout Tavion Greaves in the endzone.

When asked what his team could learn after this loss, Wells focused on executing the basics of the game.

"When we play against good teams, we have to be on point," he said. "You have to play fundamental football and we didn't tonight. We didn't tackle well, we didn't block well, we didn't protect the quarterback, we didn't protect the ball. Good teams will expose that and that's what happened tonight."

author

Sam Albuquerque

A native of João Pessoa, Brazil, Sam Albuquerque moved in 1997 to Central Florida as a kid. After earning a communications degree in 2016 from the University of Central Florida, he started his career covering sports as a producer for a local radio station, ESPN 580 Orlando. He went on to earn a master’s degree in editorial journalism from Northwestern University, before moving to South Carolina to cover local sports for the USA Today Network’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal. When he’s not working, you can find him spending time with his lovely wife, Sarah, newborn son, Noah, and dog named Skulí.