PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Each senior is in the spotlight after their last football game at Ponte Vedra, with a walk down the field, lined with family, teammates and friends.
But there was one senior showcased throughout Friday night’s Varsity 4 Game of the Week.
Running back Brian Case had a hand in all five of his team’s touchdowns while eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the seventh time this season. Still, even with Case’s brilliant effort, the Sharks needed a defensive stand in the closing seconds against Creekside to preserve a 35-30 victory in the regular-season finale for two playoff-bound teams.
Case rushed for 167 yards on 27 carries, while scoring on runs of 6, 7 and 1 yard. He added a 10-yard scoring reception from Drew Price and, as a bonus, the first touchdown pass he ever tossed, on a halfback option, gave his team a 35-23 lead seconds into the final quarter.
“That kid can do everything,” said Ponte Vedra coach Stephen Price, whose team is ranked seventh in the Super 10. “What a great Senior Night for Brian. He has been a Ponte Vedra Shark through and through. He just has been a leader for us. He bleeds Columbia Blue. I’m really happy for him. He’s a really, really good football player. But as good as he is as a football player, he’s even a better person.”
Case had a part in half of his team’s 24 first downs. The icing, though, was with his team up 28-23, Case rolled right and threw a 27-yard pass to Cameron Tietze, who adjusted to the ball, came back, hauled it in and twisted into the end zone for the score.
“It’s the first time I’ve been at PV that we’ve won on Senior Night,” said Case, who has 20 rushing and receiving touchdowns this season. “First touchdown pass I’ve thrown. It was awesome. Turned out to be huge.”
It was huge. But still, Creekside (5-5), which qualified already for the postseason as District 1-7A champions, took over on its own 29 down by five with 2 minutes, 59 seconds remaining.
The Knights made it to the Sharks 36 and faced third-and-1, but quarterback Sean Ashenfelder, who passed for 266 yards and rushed for 82 more, was spun down by Carter Ottesen on a keeper for a two-yard loss.
On the next play, Ashenfelder’s pass was just out of the reach of a diving Kaleb Taylor-Burch, who had eight receptions for 112 yards, and it was victory-formation time for Ponte Vedra (8-2), winners of five in a row.
“It means everything,” said defensive lineman Ryker Kemp, who registered his 10th sack of the season and added a tackle for loss and a blocked extra point for good measure. “We’ve been playing together since Pop Warner days, so it means a lot.”
It was the third time in the second half — and fourth time in the game — that Creekside failed on a fourth down in Sharks territory. Those came after Ashenfelder, who has passed for 1,788 yards this season and rushed for 568 more, scored on a fourth-down keeper in the second quarter.
“Proud of our kids to the way they fought,” Knights coach Sean McIntyre said. “You’ve got to convert on those downs. We had third-and-1, fourth-and-3 and didn’t convert. We had some others where we did convert, but in that critical moment, we didn’t.”
That was par for the course throughout the game. The teams alternated scores, and Creekside only pulled even after Harrison Garrido, who rushed for 142 yards on 27 carries, scored from 2 yards for a 7-all tie.
Case’s 7-yard scoring run gave his team a 14-7 lead. Following that, the Knights answered with Ashenfelder’s 2-yard keeper on fourth down. But Kemp, leaping high in the middle, blocked the extra point.
After that, Creekside was chasing Ponte Vedra the rest of the way but never could get the go-ahead or game-tying score after that kick block.
“We preached all week that no lead was safe,” Coach Price said. “They’re a really good football team. We knew it would be 48 minutes of football, if not more.”
There will be plenty more football for each side. Neither is playing during the 12th week added statewide due to bad weather during the season, so each will get next week off and then figure where they will play in the postseason.
The Knights entered the game as the fifth seed in Region 1-7A. As a district titlist, they would get a home game as long as they were not playing a higher-seeded district champion. The danger is that, if Creekside drops in the regional rankings after the defeat, the Knights could end up against district champions Lake Mary or Orange City University, which would mean a road game.
“The goal was to win because we don’t know where we’re going to be,” McIntyre said. “We thought if we won, we had a good shot at a home playoff game. We have no idea what the seeding will be now, or where we’ll be placed. So, we’ll be waiting for the rankings to come out.”
The Sharks finished behind Fleming Island in District 3-5A but entered with a No. 4 ranking in Region 1-5A. The victory could even give the team a boost to three, but at least four seems a lock. Ponte Vedra still could be on the road for its playoff opener if it runs into a lower-seeded district title winner such as Fleming Island or Daytona Beach Mainland. But, barring that, the Sharks could host.
Either way, it’s nice to have at least one more game ahead.
“This is momentum,” Case said. “We had the best week of practice last week, I think, that we’ve had the whole year. We’ve got the week off next week, so that’s nice. So, we can build off that for Week 1 of the playoffs.”
Ponte Vedra 35, Creekside 30
Creekside, 7, 13, 3, 7 — 30
Ponte Vedra, 7, 14, 7, 7 — 35
PV – Brian Case 6 run (Noah Ash kick)
C – Harrison Garrido 2 run (Evan Marchand kick)
PV – Case 7 run (Ash kick)
C – Sean Ashenfelder 2 run (kick blocked)
PV – Case 1 run (Ash kick)
C – Eros Taufer 16 pass from Ashenfelder (Marchand kick)
PV – Case 10 pass from Price (Ash kick)
C – Marchand 26 FG
PV – Cameron Tietze 27 pass from Case (Ash kick)
C – Ashenfelder 5 run (Marchand kick)
Category: C — PV
First downs: 27 — 24
Rushes-yards: 42-221 — 39-200
Passing: 266 — 207
Comp-Att-Int: 23-42-0 —14-18-1
Fumbles-lost: 1-0 — 1-1
Penalties-Yards: 5-35 — 7-76
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — C: Garrido 27-142, Ashenfelder 14-82, Kaleb Taylor-Burch 1-(-3). PV: Case 27-167, Price 9-46, Team 3-(-13).
PASSING — C: Ashenfelder 23-42-0-266. PV: Price 13-17-1-180, Case 1-1-0-27.
RECEIVING — C: Taylor-Burch 8-112, Taufer 5-76, Rocco Rippa 6-60, Garrido 2-8, Mike Bysheim 1-6, Reid Long 1-4. PV: Jack Berquist 3-70, Tietze 4-65, Caleb Stanton 3-32, Case 2-16, Adarius Medina 1-12, Davitt Doherty 1-12.