Monitor Editor
ORANGE PARK— Ridgeview jumped out to a 13-0 lead before running an offensive play and extended its lead to 20-0 before Keystone fought back to a 20-16 loss in the varsity half of the two schools’ preseason game.
School officials evacuated the stadium before the matchup because of lightning and waited 30 minutes before allowing fans back into the venue.
Poor ball handling haunted the Indians throughout the first quarter as the home-standing Panthers scored twice off Indian miscues.
On Keystone’s first possession, Ridgeview’s Chris Baptiste scooped up a fumble on the Keystone 46 and ran it in for a score, giving the Panthers a 7-0 lead after the extra point.
Baptiste struck again on the Indians’ next possession, intercepting a pass and galloping 57 yards for his second score.
The visitors, however, blocked the extra point, leaving Ridgeview with a 13-0 lead with 5:49 remaining in the first quarter.
The Indians’ ball-handling problems continued on their next possession as a dropped pitch and a dropped snap to the punter gave Ridgeview the ball on the Keystone 13.
Five plays later, the Panthers scored again when Sheppard Bridges took a handoff 9 yards into the end zone, giving Ridgeview a 20-0 lead.
On Keystone’s next possession, the Indians overcame two fumbled snaps during a 10-play, 65-yard drive, which ended with a touchdown. Cartez Daniels put the exclamation point on the drive. On first-and-10 from the 14, he shook a defender in the backfield, then ran over a second Panther en route to the goal line. Keystone’s two-point conversion cut Ridgeview’s lead to 20-8 with 6:10 remaining in the half.
Ridgeview experienced its own ball-security hiccups on its next possession. An errant snap on first-and-10 from the 19 put the ball on the Panthers 2-yard line. Three plays later, Keystone’s Daniels blocked the Panthers punt, and Vernell Jackson recovered the ball in the end zone, bringing the Indians to within four after another successful two-point conversion.
Ridgeview led 20-16 with a few minutes left in the half.
The Panthers advanced from their own 25 to their 47 on the half’s final drive as time ran out.
The junior varsity teams took over for the second half, with Keystone outscoring Ridgeview 6-0.
Keystone Head Coach Chuck Dickinson said that despite the team’s mistakes, he saw positive trends in the matchup.
“I told the kids, we take away those negative things, and we’re moving the football, we’re doing what we want to do,” he said.
The coach characterized his team’s first drive before the fumble as picture-perfect.
Dickinson added that he told ninth-grade starting quarterback Baylor Ford, who threw the interception, to forget about the errant throw.
“Yeah, I told him to forget about it,” Dickinson said. “I’m not worried about it. This is what these games are for: to learn from. And like I told him, the difference was you waited for two more steps when you threw. If you were to throw it when you should have, it probably would be a completion, but the speed of a game is so much faster than what he’s used to (in practice).”
The varsity team doesn’t open the regular season until Thursday, Sept. 1, when the Indians travel to Gainesville to play Eastside at 7:30 p.m. at Citizens Field. The JV team’s first game will take place the night before with a 6 p.m. road game against Tocoi Creek on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
