Football: Naples blanks Gulf Coast

Bill Kramer and the Naples High football team had nothing to lose

Friday night. That may have been the difference in their 18-0

victory over Gulf Coast.

With the district title already wrapped up and facing

fourth-and-2 in at the Sharks 5 in a scoreless Class 5A District 12

game, Kramer rolled the dice and went for it. When quarterback

Danny Dunford sped around the left end on a bootleg and went

untouched for a touchdown, assistant coach Ryan Krzykowski's call

was worth it.

"If we had more to play for, I'd like to believe that we're

going to play like it, which means we're not going to be in that

situation," Naples High coach Bill Kramer said. "We played just

like we practiced this week offensively."

"They set that up," Gulf Coast coach Frank Tudryn said. "You

could see it coming. Our sideline's yelling 'Bootleg.' He's a good

athlete and it doesn't take much."

The fifth-ranked Golden Eagles (8-1, 4-0 5A-12) added another

score and the Naples defense almost completely shut down the Sharks

offense. Gulf Coast (4-5, 1-3 5A-12), which lost its third

straight, needed a win and a victory by Cape Coral High over Barron

Collier to make it to a playoff tie-breaker. The Cougars won in a

blowout.

"The biggest problem we have is that we're at that level, when

we're in close games, we just haven't had that experience to get

that confidence to start making the plays," said Tudryn, whose team

finishes up at Estero. "We get too uptight. We put pressure on

ourselves because they don't want to let anybody down instead of

feeding off the energy you get from your group."

Down 12-0 early in the fourth quarter, the Sharks made their

first real drive of the game. Then quarterback Chadd Rivera burst

up the middle at the Naples 33 on a keeper and raced toward the end

zone.

But Naples High safety Joe Cosimano punched the ball out and it

rolled through the end zone, giving the Golden Eagles possession at

their 20.

"Joe was most valuable player with three interceptions last week

against Barron," said Naples defensive coordinator Sam Dollar,

whose unit tied a school record with its fourth shutout of the

season. "He played corner last week and through some discipline

reasons for the people that didn't play tonight, he played safety,

so he really stepped it up."

The Golden Eagles had a couple of chances to break on top in the

first half, but the game was scoreless at the half, thanks to

Naples' errors and the Sharks defense.

Naples went for it on fourth-and-7 from the Gulf Coast 29 and

failed, and Dunford fumbled at the Gulf Coast 18 on the first play

of the second quarter.

"Give Gulf Coast credit," Kramer said. "The Tudryns (Frank's son

is the team's defensive coordinator) did a great job of preparing

their kids. Their kids played hard."

The Golden Eagles defense harried Rivera and the Sharks all

night long, sacking Rivera eight times. The Sharks had two first

downs at the half, one of them by penalty, before piling on a few

more late in the game.

After Dunford's bootleg score, Gulf Coast's Corey Small blocked

the extra point. However, on the Golden Eagles' next possession,

they drove 73 yards on eight plays, mixing the pass and the run and

capping it with Zach Troutman's 21-yard reception from Dunford, who

was 10-of-14 for 111 yards.

On the play, Troutman out-jumped a pair of Sharks and came down

with the ball. Dunford's pass on the two-point conversion failed,

leaving Naples up 12-0 with 36.9 seconds left in the third.

Naples' Jermaine Washington sealed the win with a 65-yard

touchdown run with 1:32 left. Washington finished with 118 yards

rushing, while Jamelle Eugene had 103.

"Again, we've got to learn from that and get better," said

Kramer, whose team faces Cypress Lake to finish the regular season

next week. "I guaran-dang-tee you this much, we're going to

practice inspired this week. I promise you that."

Naples: 0 - 0 - 12 - 0 -- 18

Gulf Coast: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -- 0

Scoring

N -- Dunford 5 run (kick blocked)

N -- Troutman 21 pass from Dunford (pass failed)

N -- Washington 65 run (kick failed)

Individual Leaders

Rushing -- Naples: Washington 11-118, Eugene 19-103, Dunford

11-20; Gulf Coast: Alvaranga 12-65, Baker 2-29, James 6-9, Delve

1-2, Rivera 13-(-18).

Passing -- Naples: Dunford 10-14-0 111; Gulf Coast: Rivera

9-23-1 76.

Receiving -- Naples: Saintil 4-35, Troutman 3-56, Washington

2-18, Sanders 1-2; Gulf Coast: O'Connell 3-22, Alvaranga 2-26,

Baker 2-19, Delve 1-6, James 1-3.