Prep football: Immokalee rallies late to push past Lely

Immokalee rallies past Lely

Indians get 29-21 victory.

NAPLES — Immokalee quarterback Tshumbi Johnson hit J.C. Jackson on a 40-yard touchdown with 53 seconds left to lift the Indians to a 29-21 victory over host Lely in a thrilling Class 5A-District 12 matchup on Friday night.

With barely two minutes left, the Trojans (2-4) seemed primed for an upset over Immokalee, considered one of the best teams in the state. Lely led 21-14 until Johnson connected with a sliding Jummy Victorin for a 19-yard score with 1:53 left. The Indians hit the extra point to knot the score.

The Trojans took over deep in their own territory but had to punt after three plays, setting up Johnson and Jackson’s heroics.

“We played sloppy, but we did good by handling adversity,” said Indians coach Jerrod Ackley, whose team improved to 4-2. “My hat goes off to the way the Lely kids played. They played with a lot of passion and emotion.”

The Trojans led 7-6 at the half, Karbiel Dirogene opened up the second half with a 97-yard kickoff return to inspire the Lely crowd.

The Indians tied the score on a 10-yard pass from Johnson to Xavier Richardson.

But it looked to be Lely’s night when senior running back DeWarren Mobley bolted 50 yards for a touchdown with almost three minutes to go in the third to give the Trojans a 21-14 lead it would hold until the last two minutes of the game.

“I’m very proud of my team,” Lely coach Stacey Stewart said. “We left everything out on the field tonight. I hate that we lost but this was our best performance as a team.”

The Trojans opened up the scoring not even two minutes into the game. The Indians received the ball first, but after going nowhere in their first three plays, lined up to punt at their own 30-yard line.

A high snap sailed over the Immokalee punter’s head and was recovered by Lely at the Indians’ 8-yard line. On 2nd-and-goal, Mobley ran nine yards up the middle for the touchdown.

Immokalee, which turned the ball over twice in the first half, was able to get into the end zone on a Tshumbi Johnson 1-yard dive seconds before the first quarter ended. Another bad snap cost the Indians a chance at the extra point.

Lely lost starting quarterback Zach Gober midway through the second quarter with an apparent leg injury. He left the stadium by ambulance at the start of the third. The loss would have ramifications before the half.

Gober was replaced by junior Joel Devariste, who is basically a running quarterback. The Trojans had first and goal at the 1, seconds before the half, but two running plays went nowhere. With nine seconds left and no timeouts, the Trojans tried to run again, but Mobley was stood up by the Immokalee line at the goal line as the half expired.