NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. – Marcelis Tate was having trouble shaking off the rust Friday night, having about 50 plays under his belt the past two weeks after an injury in the second game of the season.
Worse yet for the Fletcher quarterback, he was having trouble shaking off the rush — the ferocious one from the Ed White defense.
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But Tate returned to form at the perfect time, engineering two fourth-quarter touchdowns against the Commanders. He converted two fourth downs on the final drive, culminating with a scoring pass lofted to the twisting, diving Anthony Vaglienti with one minute, 7 seconds remaining in the game to trim the deficit to one point.
As a White personal foul on the play moved the ball half the distance to the goal, the host Senators opted to go for two points. Dre Harold bulled into the end zone for the two-point conversion, capping the rally for a 20-19 triumph in non-district play.
Prior to the final drive, Tate had been sacked eight times and hurried seven others. But the line kept him clean on the last possession.
“They were all over him, but I think he’s still rusty,” Fletcher coach Ciatrick Fason said. “The last two weeks we played about 50 total plays. Things are still moving a little fast. He’s not seeing his reads as fast as usual. I told the offensive line, ‘Buckle up. This game is going to depend on you in the end.’ And that’s what happened.”
It depended on Tate as well. After throwing for 97 yards through three quarters, and then firing an interception under duress that led to White (4-3) expanding its lead to 19-7, he struck for 109 passing yards in the final quarter. The comeback was launched on the series following his interception, when Tate hit Diondre Smith, and Smith busted through a no-wrap tackle and completed a 60-yard scoring play to trim the deficit to 19-12.
“I told him after the interception to hang in there,” Fason said. “I told him he would bounce back.”
Tate spent most of the game bouncing back up after being hauled down by the Commanders defense. Senior lineman Anthony Duncan was in on four sacks, while freshman defensive back Derrick Brown tacked on two more and often joined Duncan in hounding Tate.
But Tate also used that against White on the final drive. Facing 4th-and-5 from the Commanders 25 with 2:08 left, Tate did a hard count to draw Brown offside. First down.
He wasn’t done. Facing fourth-and-3 from the 13, and with no one biting on the hard count, Tate dropped back and lobbed a pass to Vaglienti, who cut inside the defensive back in the left side of the end zone and laid out for the ball. Touchdown.
“I saw Anthony,” Tate said of his receiver, who also grabbed a first-quarter score. “I trust my guy over their guys any day. I threw it up. I really don’t know how he caught it. Heck of a catch.”
No surprise for Fason, who has seen the senior Vaglienti make those plays for three seasons.
“We told all our receivers we didn’t know who Marcelis was going to throw the ball to, but just make a play,” Fason said. “It was Anthony, and he made a hell of a catch. The kid’s a baller. He’s been making those catches since his sophomore year.”
Then, there was the personal foul, moving the ball close to the one-yard line. Other penalties could be forgiven by Commanders coach Lawrence Johnson as aggressive, try-hard plays. But that play turned into an unfortunate teaching moment.
“We’ve got to keep our cool,” Johnson said. “Instead of (the extra point kick), the ball is moved half the distance and they run the play. We didn’t keep our cool, and instead of kicking for overtime or us having a better chance (against the two-point conversion), they were able to run it.
“We’ve got to be in this situation more often, and as we learn from this, we won’t make the same mistake again.”
Fason said his team was planning a two-point try; special teams were problematic with rushers breaking through and snap-hold problems. But, with the penalty, the play changed from a pass to a run. Harold broke through for the lead, giving Fletcher (5-2) its fourth one-score victory of the season.
Fittingly, Elisha Purdy sacked White quarterback Jaylen Pettway, the Senators’ first of the game, to end White’s hope.
The effort from the Fletcher defense shouldn’t be lost in Tate’s late-game turnaround or the Commanders’ gaudy defensive stats. Two of White’s touchdowns came after the Senators turned the ball over in their own territory, leading to 31- and 34-yard scoring drives.
White managed only 103 yards in the second half, with Commanders running back La’Darien Hoofkin held to two yards in the final half after going for 62 in the first half. Pettway passed for 146 yards, but 12 of his 18 completions went for fewer than 10 yards, and only one — a 23-yard, fourth-down touchdown pass to Joshua Patterson at the start of the fourth quarter — was for more than 12 yards.
That effort held Fletcher in the game. It bought time for Tate to shake off the rust and the rush.
“I feel really great,” Tate said. “We got down on ourselves, but we kept fighting and got the ‘W’.”
Fletcher 20, White 19
White, 6, 7, 0, 6 —19
Fletcher, 6, 0, 0, 14 — 20
W – Tony Williams 1 run (run failed)
F – Anthony Vaglienti 12 pass from Marcelis Tate (run failed)
W – Donald Hampton 6 pass from Jaylen Pettway (Van Thang kick)
W – Joshua Patterson 23 pass from Pettway (kick blocked)
F – Diondre Smith 60 pass from Tate (kick blocked)
F – Vaglienti 13 pass from Tate (Harold run)
Category: W — F
First downs: 14 — 13
Rushes-yards: 31-130 — 19-37
Passing: 146 — 206
Comp-Att-Int: 18-26-0 — 13-23-1
Fumbles-lost: 0-0 — 1-1
Penalties-Yards: 16-117 — 4-26
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — W: La’Darien Hoofkin 19-64, Williams 4-32, Ulysess Johnson 4-21, Carl Steward 2-11, Pettway 2-2. F: Dre Harold 7-21, Tate 12-16.
PASSING — W: Pettway 18-26-0-146. F: Tate 13-23-1-206.
RECEIVING — W: Noah Johnson 7-49, Hampton 6-47, Patterson 1-23, Nick Roberson 3-21, U. Johnson 1-6. F: Vaglienti 4-77, Smith 1-60, Troy Hillman 2-22, Coron Davis 4-36, Ja’sean Merrick 1-12, Harold 1-(-1).