The Nease Panthers could not repeat its winning ways from a week ago against Ponte Vedra and wound up losing 37-27 to fellow county opponent Creekside on Friday, Sept. 3.
During the week, Drafts was aware of the so-called “hangover” game following a big emotional victory, but it appeared that the Panthers ran into that throughout the game.
“As much as we wanted to avoid it, coming off that big win last week got in our heads at times,” Drafts said. “In previous years, I might have tried to spin it and have a moral victory, but I told our team that we’re past that. Hopefully this “L” we took tonight will wake them up.”
The Panther faithful was rocking early on as the game was the home opener for Nease. The offense gave them even more of a reason to be loud by marching down the field on its first drive and posting the opening points of the contest after Marcus Stokes hit Grant Stevens on a 5-yard touchdown pass.
The Knights responded with a pair of touchdowns and was able to move the ball, but only led 13-7 at the half thanks to the Panther defense standing tall.
However, after a clean first half, the Panthers lost three fumbles in the second half which proved too much to come back from as the game wore on.
“We came into this game not as focused as we should have been,” Bogle said. “We’ve got to lock it down to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Two of those fumbles set up the Knights offense in the red zone, which they capitalized on with touchdowns.
The final fumble came at the most inopportune time, as the Panthers’ Donavan Wilson appeared to be heading for the end zone to cut the deficit to one possession with roughly two minutes to play and three timeouts remaining.
According to Drafts, it was a heartbreaking result because Wilson had caught a 72-yard touchdown pass from Stokes just earlier, and the fumble came as he fought for yards following another deep strike.
Despite making some big plays, the receiving corps proved to be inconsistent with several dropped passes that Drafts knows must be hauled in for the offense to reach its full potential.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but maybe it was those guys just pressing a little too much,” Drafts said. “Those guys have extremely high expectations of themselves, and we knew we were going to have to throw the ball because of how good their front is.”
Senior linebacker Ben Bogle knows this is the time that he and the rest of the senior-laden squad must step up and demonstrate their leadership.
That message was clear as he expressed his feelings on the field to his team after the game.
“I’m not losing again,” Bogle said. “I can’t.”
Marcus Stokes threw four touchdowns on the night, including a second to Wilson and a perfectly placed ball to Dom Henry, who got his foot down inbounds in the left corner of the end zone for a third quarter score that at the time cut Creekside’s lead to 20-14.
Defensively, senior Blake Harris was active and around the ball from his cornerback position, and junior safety Sterling Grimes recovered a fumble.
“Our defense is top-notch, and I’ll put us up against anybody,” Bogle said. “We’re all really close friends, and over this last offseason, we made that a goal because the closer we are, the better unit we are.”
Nease hosts Orange Park (1-1) out of Class 6A in a non-district showdown at the “Jungle” Friday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.
