By John Peery
Apopka Chief Staff

October 28, 2005 Blue Darters vs West Orange

In the week that was the lowest point for the team, the Apopka Blue Darters performed their best. In doing so, the Darters defeated archrival West Orange, 17-0, and claimed a playoff berth. But, even more than that, they overcame the removal of their head coach a day prior to the game and played with great effort and attitude. "The tribute is to our kids. They played their hearts out," said Ty Parker, interim head coach.

Parker took over after third-year head coach Ty Ensor was removed from his coaching position Thursday, October 27, a day before the Blue Darters and Warriors battled for the District 6A-4 runner-up spot and a playoff berth. "It's been a crazy week." Crazy as in the coach being fired and the team responding with its best outing of the season, defeating a rival and district opponent in a winner-take-all game just a week after the Blue Darters were waxed by East Ridge, 35-8.

After East Ridge’s two-touchdown blitz late in the first half to take a 21-0 lead, the Blue Darters put up little resistance to the Knights, giving rise to concerns that they might do the same against West Orange. But, they responded by going “old school,” Parker said. He said the players wanted to get back to traditional Apopka football, so the names on the back of the jerseys came off and even the Darter decals on the helmets.
Jared Brooks, a senior linebacker for the Darters, also called the week “crazy” and said the team “played this for coach Ensor. Coach Ensor means a lot to us.”

He also said that the team wanted to play “old-school Apopka football” and that “coach Parker came in and gave us motivation.” Early on, it looked as if it was West Orange (3-6 overall, 3-2 in District 6A-4) who was taking advantage of Apopka’s craziness, driving the opening kickoff to the Apopka 1 before fumbling. The Darters (7-2, 4-1) recovered, denying the Warriors their best chance to score.

During the drive from their own 20 to the Apopka 1, the Warriors rushed for 40 yards on the first three plays of the game. They rushed for 66 more the rest of the game. They also completed three straight passes for 35 yards to open the game, but wound up with just three more completions for 57 yards for the rest of the contest.

After recovering the fumble, the Darters moved the ball, but had to punt. However, they reversed the field, giving West Orange the ball back on its own 26 after the punt by Robert Beary. The Warriors drove to the Apopka 21, but stalled and had to punt after two 5-yard penalties took them from fourth-and-3 to fourth-and-13 from the Apopka 31.

Apopka then put together the only scoring drive of the first half as, on fourth-and-8 from the West Orange 17, Beary nailed a 34-yard field goal, giving the Darters a 3-0 lead with 3:48 left in the second period. The Darters grabbed a two-score lead on the first possession of the second half, driving 55 yards for a touchdown after Reggie Haynes’ nice kickoff return of 33 yards.

It took just six plays for Apopka to punch in the game’s first touchdown as fullback Nico Stanley bulled in from the 9. Beary’s extra point gave Apopka a 10-0 lead with 9:04 left in the third period. West Orange had little success offensively in the second half as Apopka’s defense allowed the Warriors just two first downs, one of them on the game’s final play. But, after an Apopka punt, West Orange had good field position at the 50, but on fourth-and-7 from the Apopka 34, Apopka defensive back Jeremy Brown made a great open-field tackle at the 30 on West Orange receiver Lee Blake, who had come free on an end-around play.

After the teams traded punts, the Darters began a clock-eating scoring drive from its own 28, eating up all but 8 seconds of the 6:22 on the fourth-quarter clock. However, the game ended in controversy as Apopka called timeout with 11.9 seconds left in the game, facing a fourth-and-goal from the 1. The clock would have run out without Apopka having to take a snap, but the Darters wanted another chance to score.

“We weren’t trying to run up the score,” Parker said. “If that six points helps our kids, I’ll take some criticism.” Stanley got the scoring honors again and Beary added the extra point for the 17-0 margin.

Apopka played the game without Steven Joseph, its leading rusher, after he left the team voluntarily during the week. However, after a vote of the players, Joseph is back on the team, although he will not play this week at Madison County, Parker said.

The Darters still managed 172 yards on the ground against a West Orange defense that was the strength of its team. Javaris Bolden led Apopka with 81 yards on just 6 carries while Stanley gained 75 yards and had the two touchdowns on 13 attempts.