Prep football: Gulliver Prep's big second half beats Lely PHOTOS

A sound first half of action turned into a second-half rout as visiting Miami-Gulliver Prep rolled by Lely 36-7 in Friday night’s regular season opener.

Things fell apart for Lely the last two minutes of the third period. Gulliver scored three times within two minutes, with Lely guilty of two costly fumbles. The second fumble was returned 38 yards for a six-pointer by the Raiders’ Cedric Walker with 17.5 seconds left in the period.

“When you play a good football team, you can’t give them a short field,” said Trojans head coach Dave Miller. “They will take advantage of it. We’ve just got to do a better job of playing field position and holding onto the football.”

Trouble continued in the fourth period when Lely mishandled a Gulliver punt, and the Raiders got it at the Trojans’ 17. Ultimately, Robbie Rakoski intercepted a pass in the end zone to thwart the threat.

The Raiders struck quickly in the game after a punt return of 42 yards by Walker. On Gulliver’s first actual play from scrimmage following a penalty, quarterback Dalton Easton found Max Grigio all alone of the left side for an easy 13-yard touchdown pass with 10:31 to go.

Lely’s Kervens Beauplen found a big hole in the right side of the line and burst 29 yards untouched for the Trojans’ only TD, with 4:19 to go in the half.

The Trojans appeared to take the lead as time expired in the first half. Kit Fowler found Geoto Dantes on a crossing pattern and a play that went 52 yards to the end zone. The score was wiped out, though, by an illegal forward pass penalty. Fowler was beyond the line of scrimmage when he let go of the ball.

Fowler was starting behind center for Lely because Patrick Lane sustained a back injury during Tuesday’s practice and was still too tight to go at game time.

“I thought Kit did a pretty good job considering he found out he was going to start only about 10 minutes before the game,” Miller said.

Thanks in large part to two big losses by Raiders QB Easton — one of 26 yards on a high snap in the shotgun), Lely held Gulliver to minus-6 yards on the ground the first half. By comparison, the Trojans stepped off 136 yards of real estate.

Early on, Easton was plagued by several dropped passes on nicely thrown balls.

But too many mistakes just proved to be the Trojans’ downfall on a night when Daveson Cyceron ran for 85 yards on 23 carries.

“There were bright spots,” Miller said. “We were feeling good about our chances there at halftime. But we came out flat in the third quarter.”

The Trojans take to the road for a short trip to local rival Gulf Coast in another non-district game next Friday night.

GULLIVER PREP 36, LELY 7

GP 7 0 22 7 — 36

Lely 0 7 0 0 — 7

SCORING

First quarter

GP — Grigio 13 pass from Easton (Viola kick) 10-:31

Second quarter

L — Beauplen 29 run (Sanchez kick) 4:19

Third quarter

GP — Leggett 1 run (Viola kick) 2:18

GP — Lane 2 pass from Easton 1:16

GP — Walker 38 fumble return (Viola kick) 17.5

Fourth quarter

GP — Walker 14 run (Viola kick) 1:08