Photo Courtesy of Legacy Photography By Aaron Jones
NORTHSIDE-They said they wouldn’t beat Yulee, but they did.
They said they wouldn’t win the District 3-5A shootout, but they did.
They said they wouldn’t beat Raines, but guess what they did.
For the third time in 9 days, Ribault proved the doubters wrong with a 28-12 win over Raines Saturday in the 47th Annual Northwest Classic at Earl S Kitchings Stadium.
Ribault jumped on Raines early and then rode its defense for the majority of the game, to win its second straight in the series for the first time since 2009-2010.
A year ago, Ryan Williams was on the sideline as the backup quarterback watching Ribault knock off Raines 19-14; a year later he was the one picking apart the Vikings defense as the Trojans starting quarterback.
After receiving the opening kickoff, the Trojans didn’t waste anytime taking an early lead marching 80 plays while chewing up nearly 8 minutes off the clock.
Behind Ryan Williams and tailback Javon Williams, the Trojans ran through and around the Vikings defense with ease. Kenneth Chanelle and Louis Dorsey came up with clutch catches on the drive as well.
After being stopped twice on fourth and goal from the 1 the latter on an Raines off sides call, Williams was replaced temporarily by Jamal Marsh who snuck in for the score putting the Trojans ahead 7-0 with four minutes left in the opening quarter.
Raynell Killian fumbled the ensuing kickoff which was quickly recovered by the Trojans at the 38-yard line.
A pass interference call on the Vikings put the Trojans inside the 10 and three plays later Williams hit Dorsey for a 5-yard strike putting the Trojans up 14-0 with two minutes left in the opening quarter.
Louis Dorsey 5 yard TD catch from Ryan Williams, Trojans up 14-0 with 2:22 left in first. @DuvalSports
— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) November 5, 2016
End 1
Ribault (Buster Douglas) 14
Raines (Mike Tyson) 0 @DuvalSports— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) November 5, 2016
Just like that the Vikings were down 14-0 without having run one offensive play.
Raines finally got the ball on offense but the 12 play drive ended with Ivory Durham IV throwing an incomplete pass on fourth and 12 a few minutes into the second quarter.
A high snap on a punt on Raines next possession appeared to be another turnover by the Vikings taken advantage of but Walter Watkins picked off Williams at midfield a play later.
All sorta of chaos on Vikings offense running wrong routes, not knowing plays, out of sync.
— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) November 5, 2016
Given new life, the Vikings finally responded.
Durham started clicking and hitting his receivers Kamaree Noble, Chase Bonham and Jeremiah Kidd moving the ball to the 30-yard line.
The Vikings took advantage of back-to-back personal foul calls on the Trojans which moved the ball to the 8-yard line as Durham connected with Javon Bosnell on a screen play cutting the lead to 14-6 three minutes before the half. A bad snap on the two-point try kept it an eight point game at the half.
Teams get water during officials timeout as clock has stopped working pic.twitter.com/On6ojEz4sL
— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) November 5, 2016
Among the halftime guests was Reverend Jessie Jackson who was there urging people to vote in the presidential election on Tuesday.
Reverend Jessie Jackson and Raines Principal Vincent Hall at the Northwest Classic Raines vs Ribault #RainesvsRibault #raines #ribault pic.twitter.com/DWrSaJ5rcA
— Duval Sports ™️ (@DuvalSports) November 5, 2016
Raines received the second half kickoff and looked to cut into the lead early but the plan back fired.
Killian again has issues with the kickoff and was tackled at the 6-yard line putting the Vikings in terrible field position again. It only got worse as two plays later a high snap over Durham head was recovered by the Trojans all the way back to the 3-yard line.
Javon Williams rumbled 3 yards on the next play and suddenly the Trojans were up 21-6 barely a minute into the third quarter.
Two possessions later, the Viking offense finally settled down and responded as Durham found Willie Wright wide open in the end zone following the mandatory water break for a 37-yard touchdown play cutting the lead to 21-12 midway through the third quarter.
Wright finally was able to break containment on a punt and put the Vikings near midfield on their next possession as they looked to steal the momentum back.
Durham guided the Vikings inside the 14-yard line before a holding call backed them up well out of field goal range at the 32-yard line. Faced with fourth and 23, Durham pass near the goal line was broken up by the Trojans defensive back at the last second preventing a touchdown.
Instead of it being 21-18 late in the third quarter, the Vikings were still down two scores 21-12 late in the third quarter.
Williams was sacked by Diop Kee and fumbled which was recovered by Bonsell at the 16-yard line.
The momentum had finally begun to swing the Vikings way it appeared but the reluctant Trojans defense led by Jaalen Ford, Jaylen Joyner and Antonio Hagans had other ideas.
Pressure on Durham forced two incomplete passes and a completion to Keyon Garmon went for no gain setting up fourth and 10 from the 16-yard line. Durham again under pressure threw a pass away to avoid the rush and again the Vikings were denied from inside the red zone.
Watkins picked off his second Williams pass near midfield to give the Vikings the ball back with about 9 minutes left in the game.
A 19 yard by Durham put the Vikings inside the 6 yard line but on fourth and goal Durham panicked under heavy pressure again and threw the ball well out of the back of the end zone.
Back-to-back trips inside the red zone for the Vikings resulted in no points.
Taking over at the 6-yard line, the Trojans went to their new bread and butter part of their offense and fed Jon Singleton and Maurice Gomillion the ball six consecutive carries to chew up the clock and pick up key first downs.
As the clown began to wind down under four minutes, things started to get a bit chippy on the field as tempers began to flare on the Vikings side and the Trojans perhaps may have been taunting as well. The head official called both coaches over after Raines was flagged for back-to-back personal fouls in the closing minutes.
“He brought us together and told us hey you’re both going to the playoffs and he would hate to see a kid/kids get tossed out of the game and possibly miss the playoffs,” Ribault head coach Kelvin Smith said. “Talk your team and settle things down before things get really out of hand.”
After the back-to-back personal fouls moved the ball inside the 5, Gomillion put an exclamation point on the game with a 2 yard touchdown run with under a minute remaining putting the Trojans up 28-12.
As the clock wound down, Trojans players doused Smith with Gatorade in his first ever win over Raines as a head coach.
Coach Smith Gatorade Shower after Ribault Trojans 28-12 win over NorthSide rival Raines @DuvalSports pic.twitter.com/Ip2P8fLbvj
— PHILL-DuvalSports (@dreamkingfilmz) November 6, 2016
“We prepared really well for this game, we had a great week of practice and the kids executed really well,” Smith said.
Quite a turn around from three weeks ago, when after Ribault stumbled at home against Suwannee with a chance to lock up the district, nobody gave the Trojans much of a chance to beat Yulee in a must win game or again in the District 3-5A shootout in Live Oak or today against nemesis Raines who was a 28 point favorite.
“We started competing and our offense started picking things up,” Smith said. “The defense was always stout but we had to get our offense going and they responded by putting up points. Our offensive line has been getting a whole lot better and we started jelling finally.”
Smith also pointed out the tough schedule his team played and had them prepared for the tough district grind.
“People forget we lost to Norland on a last second field goal and we lost 16-12 to a good Mandarin team so we have had some really tough losses and we have learned a lot from those,” Smith said. “Despite the losses I was encouraging the team we would get better and we weren’t that far from getting the offense on tract.”
After the win Smith sat down on the bench after talking his team and kind of soaked in the moment a bit in typical coaching form down playing the win.
“It feels great to win, but to be honest it just feels like another game,” Smith said, “We will celebrate tonight and then start preparing for Bishop Kenny on Monday.”
Smith added he got a head start on Kenny by seeing them play Friday night in a win over Ridgeview.
Ribault (5-3) hosts Bishop Kenny in the first round of 5A playoffs next Friday; while Raines (6-2) has a much shorter week ahead having to play at Walton Thursday in the first round of the 4A playoffs.
Raines vs Ribault rivalry
Trophy: Northwest Classic (Maroon/Carolina colors)
Series: Raines leads 33-14
1970: Raines 35, Ribault 7 (1-0)
1971: Raines 28, Ribault 6 (2-0)
1972: Raines 35, Ribault 17 (3-0)
1973: Raines 21, Ribault 0 (4-0)
1974: Raines 27, Ribault 7 (5-0)
1975: Raines 14, Ribault 6 (6-0)
1976: Ribault 12, Raines 6 (6-1)
1977: Ribault 16, Raines 7 (6-2)
1978: Raines 23, Ribault 7 (7-2)
1979: Raines 14, Ribault 0 (8-2)
1980: Raines 7, Ribault 0 (9-2)
1981: Raines 14, Ribault 0 (10-2)
1982: Raines 37, Ribault 13 (11-2)
1983: Raines 35, Ribault 0 (12-2)
1984: Raines 17, Ribault 14 (13-2)
1985: Ribault 27, Raines 22 (13-3)
1986: Ribault 32, Raines 0 (13-4)
1987: Raines 15, Ribault 6 (14-4)
1988: Raines 35, Ribault 18 (15-4)
1989: Raines 24, Ribault 0 (16-4)
1990: Raines 21, Ribault 0 (17-4)
1991: Raines 25, Ribault 7 (18-4)
1992: Ribault 14, Raines 6 (18-5)
1993: Ribault 18, Raines 2 (18-6)
1994: Ribault 8, Raines 7 (18-7)
1995: Raines 31, Ribault 19 (19-7)
1996: Ribault 8, Raines 7 (19-8)
1997: Raines 38, Ribault 0 (20-8)
1998: Raines 60, Ribault 12 (21-8)
1999: Ribault 22, Raines 15 (21-9)
2000: Ribault 26, Raines 20 (21-10)
2001: Raines 24, Ribault 18 (22-10)
2002: Raines 33, Ribault 12 (23-10)
2003: Raines 57, Ribault 0 (24-10)
2004: Raines 33, Ribault 6 (25-10)
2005: Raines 36, Ribault 6 (26-10)
2006: Raines 39, Ribault 0 (27-10)
2007: Raines 27, Ribault 7 (28-10)
2008: Raines 22, Ribault 21 (OT) (29-10)
2009: Ribault 27, Raines 21 (29-11)
2010: Ribault 32, Raines 19 (29-12)
2011: Raines 39, Ribault 7 (30-12)
2012: Raines 42, Ribault 20 (31-12)
2013: Raines 40, Ribault 25 (32-12)
2014: Raines 19, Ribault 7 (33-12)
2015: Ribault 19, Raines 14 (33-13)
2016: Ribault 28, Raines 12 (33-14)
Featured Image Courtesy of Legacy Photography By Aaron Jones
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