By Beth Jones
The Hornets hosted this season’s Battle of the Bridge on Friday night. The Yulee High School football team rolled to 7-0 with a 28-0 shutout victory over the visiting Fernandina Beach Pirates (5-3).
“It matters to the kids,” said Kyle Dougherty, head football coach at Yulee. “They were really locked in and ready to go. I think you see a little bit of a testament to how our kids prepared for that week. Tuesday and Wednesday, we were really good at practice. I think that’s what showed up, they played well. A shutout in a game that’s emotional like that is big.”
Turtle Ricks blocked a punt to set up the Hornets’ first touchdown.
“We ran a couple of jet sweeps that Preston (Matricardi) got in on,” Dougherty said.
Yulee led 7-0.
The Hornets scored on their third drive of the night.
“Jackson threw a glance to Jayden Bishop, and he ran it down to the 4-yard line,” Dougherty said.
JJ Etienne punched that one in one play later, giving the host Hornets a 14-0 lead.
Ricks scored the Hornets’ third TD. His quarterback sack resulted in a fumble, which he scooped up and ran into the end zone. Yulee led 21-0.
Tre Vazquez reeled in a 29-yard pass for the final Hornet score.
Quarterback Jackson Visconti threw for 71 yards and a TD, with just three completions.
“Our receivers dropped a lot of passes,” Dougherty said. “He put the ball on them.”
Vazquez had the TD pass, and Visconti also connected with Jayden Bishop and Pete Kuhlman.
Vazquez rushed eight times for 56 yards, and Corbin Fletcher had eight carries for 40.
Sophomore linebacker Jaison Brown had 19 tackles to lead the Yulee defense on Friday.
“He gets in on everything,” Dougherty said.
Etienne recorded 10 solo tackles and five assists, and Ricks had 10 solo stops and a trio of assists, with nine tackles for a loss. Ricks had four sacks on the night, Calvin McCardell had 2.5, and Brown and Ryan Murphy had 1.5 apiece. Donovan Attaway had half a sack.
Shamar Gibbs intercepted a pass, McCardell recovered a fumble, and Ricks caused four fumbles. Ricks has nine forced fumbles this season.
Yulee kicker Daniel Armenta had three touchbacks on the night.
“Armenta is so good,” Dougherty said. “He had like three punts inside the 22. I don’t think he even knows how important that is, because he doesn’t get hyped as during a touchback. But a punt inside the 20 is huge.”
It was Yulee’s third shutout of the season, the fourth counting the preseason classic.
“It’s nice that we’re 7-0, but we don’t get to stop and take a breather,” Dougherty said. “That’s coming a little with the territory, having a little bull’s eye on. Teams aren’t going to overlook you just because of the name on your chest. They’re going to take you a little more honestly.”
Yulee plays at Flagler Palm Coast Friday, in the first of two road games.
“Flagler Palm Coast is 2-5, but they’re better than their record is,” Dougherty said. “They played a couple of tough teams they didn’t beat. They’re big, they’re a 3,000-person school. It will be tough.”
One week later, Yulee faces Raines in a district showdown.
“ That will essentially be the district championship,” Dougherty said. “The team that wins that is automatically in the playoffs.”
Yulee caps the regular season at home with Pedro Menendez on Halloween.
Dougherty, who is in his fifth season as head coach at Yulee, is just as surprised as anyone else that his team is unbeaten. Yulee went 2-8 last season after going two games into the playoffs the year before.
“I didn’t see 7-0,” Dougherty said. “I knew we were going to be pretty good after the spring game, just because I knew how good Baldwin was and I knew that First Coast was decent. I knew that when we handled those two teams pretty well, I knew that we were going to be OK, with what our schedule looked like.
“We played so many games tight, I knew if we stayed healthy and we played clean football, we were going to have a shot.”
The Pirates (5-3) play at Clay Friday and cap the regular season at home Oct. 24. They host Impact Christian Academy at 7 p.m.
bjones@nassaunewsline.net
