Ponte Vedra spotted Bartram Trail 13 first quarter points as a late Shark relay fell just short in their 13-7 opening game road loss to the Bears.
Despite the loss, second-year head coach Steve Price was proud at the way his Sharks refused to quit on the soggy Bartram Trail surface.
“It was a disappointing loss, but I’m proud of our kids,” said Price following the contest. “The effort is always there, but we have to improve our execution. We also need to improve protecting the football as we turned the ball over way too much. That’s the number one thing in football is preventing those turnovers.”
After giving up 122 yards in the game’s first 12 minutes of action, the stingy Shark defense led by Trooper Price and Corey Bloss gave up but 125 total yards during the final three quarters of hard-fought action.
Price was a human wrecking ball on defense the entire game and was credited with 16 total tackles, the second highest total tackles by a Shark in their 14-year history. Bloss was a terror in the secondary as PV only permitted a measly 24 yards passing from the Bears and their highly touted junior quarterback, Riley Trujillo.
However, after missing on his first six passing attempts, Trujillo connected on an eight-yard TD pass to Taylor Rhodes in the corner of the end zone midway through the opening stanza. The point after attempt by kicker Liam Pardron, was wide as the scoreboard showed Bartram Trail leading 6-0. The drive was set up when the Bears took over deep in PV territory after a short punt that traveled but 14 yards.
Twice in the Sharks’ first two opening possessions they nearly struck pay dirt. Junior quarterback Ben Burk threw a perfect long-range pass that had six-points written all over it but was dropped by the receiver. On their next series of downs, yet another home run ball from Burk was just off the fingertips of a Shark receiver.
Bartram Trail had their only sustained drive during the entire game when they marched 77 yards for their second tally, capped by a quarterback keeper from Trujillo from 39 yards out on the final play of the first quarter. This time, Pardron’s kick was good and Bartram had tallied their 13th and final points of the game.
Near the end of the second quarter, the Sharks mounted a drive that carried from their own 20-yard line down to the Bears’ 30, but a long field goal attempt by Mark Romero was blocked.
The second half was dominated by the Sharks, but three fumbles stopped possible Shark scoring opportunities. With the Sharks still on the short end of a 13-0 score coach Price inserted senior Nathan Bunkosky in at quarterback on the visitors first possession of the final quarter. The versatile Bunkosky, who had already played virtually the entire game as a wide receiver and defensive back, was the sparkplug that nearly ignited the Sharks to a comeback victory.
The point guard from last year’s state runner-up basketball team took over the signal calling duties after Maddux Babin intercepted a Trujillo pass and returned the ball down to the Bears’ 42-yard line. Bunkosky then carried three times good for 27 yards to move the ball down to the Bears’ 15-yard line. However, on the next play, trying to get that extra yard, Bunkosky fumbled, and the Bears recovered.
After the Sharks forced a Bartram punt, the Sharks mounted again another drive led by Bunkosky. With the Sharks deep into Bears territory, Bartram Trail senior defensive lineman Shane Armstrong came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game for the winners. On a second and two yards to go for a PV first down, Armstrong put a crushing hit on Shark running back Griffin Owen causing a fumble that turned the ball back again to Bartam Trail.
The never-say-die Sharks again forced another punt with time running out in the contest. Bunkosky connected on three straight passes to senior wide receiver Alex Cotto, the final from 15 yards good for a Shark TD with but 0:25 left on the clock. Romero’s point after made the final score read 13-7.
When asked about his quarterbacks, Price had lavish praise for both Burk and Bunkosky.
“He’s a great one, isn’t he?” said Price in his reference to Bunkosky. “ We’ll see how this week goes. Ben had some bad breaks, but we believe in both of them. It just seemed to me that we would have three or four goods plays in a row but then one bad one that took away our drives.”
Faced with a daunting schedule the Sharks will welcome another tough opponent when they face Florida State University High of Tallahassee in their home opener Friday night at the Shark Tank. A state finalist from last season, Florida High was victorious in their opening game with a narrow 22-19 victory over another powerhouse opponent the Sharks will face later in the season, Ocala Trinity Catholic.
When asked about this year’s difficult schedule, Price was quick to respond, “We certainly feel we play with anybody, but we also know we have to play to the best of our ability to be successful. We need to execute on every single play, and we can’t take a play off. By the time the playoffs come, we are going to be a pretty tough football team.”
