- April 25, 2024
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Coach Beach's team will have to execute on offense and shut down DeLand's running back to ensure a victory on Friday night.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
There won’t be any time for Seabreeze to feel sorry for themselves after their loss at Flagler Palm Coast last week.
The Sandcrabs play host to a DeLand team that was leading New Smyrna Beach 21-0 at half, but couldn’t hold on and lost 41-35 in overtime.
“They just turned it over on back-to-back series,” Ormond Beach coach Marc Beach said. "They probably should have won, but they gave up some big plays. New Smyrna battled and didn’t quit.”
Beach said his offense will have to do a better job executing than they did against FPC, and his defense will have to shut down DeLand’s offensive workhorse.
"Offensively, they're going to give the ball to JoJo (Kemp),” Beach said. “They ultimately want to feed him, but their quarterback can beat you as well."
Kailik Williams, Dorian Gonzalez and Chris Jones will be among the Seabreeze defenders focused on stopping Kemp, who is a USF commit and rushed for four touchdowns last week.
"(Kailik) is a good player,” Beach said. “He's played really well the last two games. So has Dorian. The D-line has done a good job keeping offensive lineman off them so they can makes plays."
The Seabreeze defense held FPC out of the end zone all last Friday night, except for the final drive. Unfortunately for the Sandcrabs, that was the drive that gave the Bulldogs an 11-7 victory.
On fourth down and trailing 7-3, Devonti Emanuel scored on a 5-yard run. And after the Bulldogs added the two-point conversion, they were looking at a four-point lead with just 53 seconds left in the game.
“We basically scripted this game before it even started,” FPC coach Caesar Campana said. “We told these guys, ‘We’re going to win this game at the end of the game. And it’s going to come down to just being patient.’”
FPC was certainly patient, trailing Seabreeze almost the entire game.
The Sandcrabs put together a 90-yard scoring drive on their first possession of the game. The Bulldogs didn’t seem to have an answer for Trey Rodriguez, Connor Blair, Charles Nelson and the Sandcrabs’ up tempo offense.
The long drive was capped off with a Blair touchdown run from inside the 5-yard line on a zone read. It proved to be the most success Seabreeze would have in the first half and for the rest of the game.
