In the first meeting since last year’s state playoff matchup, Titusville traveled to Merritt Island for a big District 8-3A matchup.
The 4-1 Terriers hung around for a half, but undefeated Merritt Island showed its depth outlasting Titusville in a 39-16 victory.
“I thought we came out good. It was a wet game early on, so it was a little sloppy early on offense. Defensively, we came out on fire,” Merritt Island head coach Tyler Murray said. “We had a pick six. Special teams played lights out, so we were flying around on the defensive side of the ball. We held a pretty good team to 16 points.”
The Mustangs were jumpstarted by big plays from a pair of transfers in senior Elijah Floyd and sophomore Elijah Mitchell.
After Titusville senior Dewight Jenkins intercepted Merritt Island senior Kevin Verpaele, Floyd intercepted Terriers senior Remy Vigne on the next play and returned it 21 yards for the game’s first touchdown.
It was Floyd’s first interception as a Mustang. He entered the game second on the team in tackles.
“He’s (Floyd) an unbelievable football player. I hope North Dakota State was watching. They were talking to me about him a little bit (today),” Murray said. “I hope they were watching because he’s a great player and somebody’s going to get lucky with a kid flying underneath the radar.”
Mitchell finished the night as Verpaele’s top target with 4 receptions for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns. He posted his second 100-yard receiving game of the season.
Mitchell doubled the Merritt Island lead to 14-0, spinning out of tackle and sprinting to the end zone for a 76-yard touchdown. The sophomore scored the final touchdown of the night on a 37-yard reception.
“The win was good. We came out here to play and we just came out here to do good,” Mitchell said. “I told my quarterback before the play to throw me the ball and I’ll make a play. I caught the ball and he tried to tackle me. All I saw was the end zone.”
Mitchell has fit in seamlessly into the Merritt Island offense in his first season. The sophomore leads the team with 510 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns.
“Coach Murray pushed me hard every day and that’s really why,” Mitchell said. “We’re hungry and we want to win.”
Titusville scored on the first play of the second half to trim the deficit to four, but Merritt Island snatched the momentum right back on a 99-yard kick return for a touchdown by senior Kamar Fielder. It outscored the Terriers 22-3 beginning with the kick return.
Verpaele rushed for a 12-yard touchdown and finished the night with 246 total yards and 3 touchdowns. The Mustangs put the game away scoring touchdowns on the first three times they touched the ball in the second half.
“We missed a couple early on. We had a couple holding calls that really put us behind the chains,” Murray said. “When you do that kind of stuff, it’s really tough to dig yourself out of it. Luckily our defense played well and they got the job done for us.”
Merritt Island enters the bye week with a 6-0 record. It’ll have two weeks to prepare for its district showdown at Eau Gallie on Oct. 9.
“We’re really close to where we want to be. We got a really good opponent in two weeks. A really big game, so we’re going to get to work and figure out what we got to do to win that game,” Murray said. “Us coaches have been working on them for a couple weeks already, so I’m excited to see. It’s not a week off. It’s an opportunity to get better. That’s how we approach it.”
Titusville competed with Merritt Island in the first half, recording the game’s first takeaway on an interception by Jenkins. It forced a second takeaway in the fourth quarter on a fumble recovery by senior Matthew Graham.
However, the Terriers were unable to convert those takeaways into points.
“I said going into this whoever’s defense plays the best will win. Our defense played good for a long time. Hats off to Merritt Island, their coaching staff, their team,” Titusville head coach Matt Diesel said. “They got a really good team. They got a ton of size. They got a bunch of athletes. They do a really good job. They brought a good game and we couldn’t keep pace there in the end.”
Titusville’s defense limited Merritt Island’s offense to a season-low 283 total yards. The Mustangs entered the game averaging 439.8 yards per game.
However, the special teams struggled in flipping field position. Merritt Island recorded an average starting field position of midfield.
It also allowed a controversial kick return for a touchdown as it appears senior Khamari Fletcher forced a fumble of Fielder at the 3-yard line with the ball rolling out of the end zone for what would have been a touchback. The refs ruled a touchdown on the play.
“That’s correction and fix No. 1. Our kicker has an incredible leg. He’s been putting the ball in the end zone at a very high percentage and we haven’t had to cover a lot of kickoffs,” Diesel said. “(Tonight), you seed the wind and all that good stuff and we didn’t quite get it into the end zone and we are deficient right now on our kickoff coverage. Our punt coverage was not great. We definitely got some special teams stuff to iron out.”
Offensively, it took some time for the Terriers to get into rhythm. Senior quarterback Remy Vigne battled through shoulder tightness and sat out a possession in the second quarter in which Titusville turned to senior Tank Harvey to quarterback the team.
Harvey finished the night with 104 total yards and 1 touchdown. The senior scored on a 32-yard run in the second quarter to make it 14-6, capping a 9-play drive that he quarterbacked in which he rushed the ball 5 times for 54 yards. He also caught 3 passes for 40 yards and played on defense.
“Tank (Harvey) is all dog. He will go until his arms fall off, his legs fall off. He’s as good as a football player as I’ve been around. He’s an exceptional kid,” Diesel said. “He does a lot of things for us at a really high level. In the screen game, playing defensive back, jet sweeps, he does all kinds of stuff. He can even throw the ball. You can’t say enough good things about Tank Harvey.”
Vigne improved his play in the second half, throwing an 81-yard touchdown pass to junior Deion Bland on the first play of the second half to cut the deficit to 17-13. The senior ended the night completing 9-of-19 passes for 184 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.
“He had some tightness in his shoulder early and couldn’t quite get it going. The ball was just off. We know Remy (Vigne) when he’s on and we know when he’s not quite 100%. Remy’s going to give you everything he’s got,” Diesel said. “He’s a great kid. He works his tail off. Nobody cares more than he does, but (tonight) there were times where he just didn’t have it to go and then there were times where he looked like he was doing pretty good.”
Titusville dropped to 4-2 and it’ll host Davenport on Oct. 2. Diesel said he knows where the team needs to go from here heading into the home stretch of the season.
“Merritt Island is certainly right now playing a good brand of football,” Diesel said. “For us to come out here and get pushed and compete as well as we did … obviously, we show up to win but for us to compete and be in the game, it will help us out down the stretch finishing out the season.”
The Commodores extended their winning streak to three games, picking up their second district win with a home shutout of Astronaut.
Eau Gallie senior Donovan Richardson opened the scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run. Senior Joseph Allen completed his first touchdown pass of the game to junior Tay Johnson for a 19-yard score.
Commodores junior Troy Silberzahn scored a 3-yard touchdown run. Allen threw a 43-yard touchdown to junior Zay Hawkins and a 32-yard touchdown to senior Lukas Viselli.
Eau Gallie enters its bye week with a 4-2 record as it’ll host Merritt Island on Oct. 9. Astronaut dropped to 2-3 and it’ll host Space Coast on Oct. 2.
In a battle of unbeatens, the Scorpions ran away in the Beach Bowl outscoring the Minutemen 34-6 in the second half to keep hold of the surfboard trophy.
Satellite senior Raiden Kerr rushed for 2 touchdowns. Seniors Anthony Romero, Liam Nolte, Adrian Garcia and Tristan Sejeck scored 1 rushing touchdown. Senior Brody Grennan threw touchdown passes to senior Noah Corriveau and senior Brennan Saxe.
Cocoa Beach ended Satellite’s defensive scoreless streak at 260:04 on a touchdown pass by junior Jay Craft to senior Langston Long with 37 seconds left in the first half. Minutemen freshman Jordan Stevens returned a kickoff 64 yards for a touchdown in the second half.
1 / 8
2 / 8
3 / 8
4 / 8
5 / 8
6 / 8
7 / 8
8 / 8Satellite improved to 6-0 and it’ll head to Eustis on Oct. 2. Cocoa Beach moves to 5-1 and it’ll head to Palm Bay on Oct. 2.
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
