Led by a fourth-quarter defensive stand anchored by big tackle Jordan Phillips, visiting Ocoee knocked off rival Wekiva 24-20 Friday night.
Wekiva had took a 20-14 lead early in the third quarter led by sophomore receiver Assad Waseem, but that was all the offense the Mustangs (1-1) could muster the rest of the way.
Ocoee (1-1), led offensively by sophomore quarterback Dylan Wade, kept plugging away at the Wekiva defense until the Knights were able to finally sustain some offensive momentum and defeat a team that was No. 9 in the Sentinel Super 16 rankings.
“Hey, he’s definitely ready to do something. He’s a good player and he’s only a sophomore this year,” Ocoee head coach Aaron Sheppard said of Wade. “There were mistakes and we had a lot of mistakes, but [Wade] played well enough to get us the win, which is the most important thing.”
Wade scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 2-yard plunge late in the third quarter. Ocoee’s defense took over from there.
Led by Phillips, the Knights forced the Mustangs into several miscues, including a fumble that was recovered by Amir Johnson and two interceptions of Wekiva quarterback Junior Muratovic by Ocoee’s Malik Harp and Zoren Tobe. The second pick sealed the game for Ocoee with nine seconds left.
Phillips had a sack on the final Wekiva drive and Ahlston Ware had a key pass break-up to thwart the Mustangs’ last-ditch efforts.
“Jordan, he’s amazing, man. … dominant animal,” Sheppard said of the 6-foot-4, 290-pound Phillips, who is only a junior. “He’s impossible to block. He’s an anomaly. He is powerful … squats 500 almost and benches, I don’t know, 330 or something like that.
“On top of that he’s a wrestler and he’s got a lot of good things going for him. And he’s mean as a rattlesnake.”
Wekiva finally got the passing game going as halftime approached. A pair of Muratovic passes to Waseem of 20 and 32 yards were capped by a Chad Davis Jr. 1-yard touchdown run to give Wekiva a 7-0 lead.
Ocoee answered, marching right back down the field with a pair of completions from Wade to receiver Tae’Quan Johnson, a Coastal Carolina commit. Johnson ended the drive with a short touchdown catch.
Wekiva opened the second half, after a big kickoff return by Khalid Brown, with the Muratovic-to-Waseem connection again. The sophomore receiver caught a 19-yard pass and followed that catch with a 33-yard touchdown from Muratovic to put the Mustangs up 14-6.
After that, however, Waseem never saw the football, as Ocoee ramped up the pressure
“I just try to do my part,” Waseem said. “We had the game in our hands, but some things happened and they just basically came back on us.”
Wade answered the Wekiva score with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Tramari Smith to tie the game, and Wekiva could not gain separation.
The two teams traded scores again late in the third quarter. Wekiva’s Kendall Wilson II blocked a punt that was returned 22 yards for a touchdown by Tamareon Foster. Wekiva missed the PAT, but had a 20-14 lead and momentum.
That’s when Sheppard rolled the dice. Ocoee drove the length of the field and after a 15-yard run by Wade put the Knights inside the 10-yard line. They faced fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Wade got the call and punched it in, giving the Knights their first lead of the night.
Kicker Evan Kowaski added a 36-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and Ocoee relied on its defense from there.
“Our kids just wanted to win. We asked them to do certain things to put us in position to win and they played really hard,” Sheppard said. “They wanted to do the best they could and win the game.”
Ocoee is one of the early surprises of this season. The Knights pushed area No. 1 Apopka, the Class 8A state runner-up a year ago, to the brink in the opener before losing 15-13.
Johnson, a senior who missed the first game for personal reasons, said his teammates impressed him.
“Honestly, I was surprised last game. They really shocked me,” Johnson said of the Apopka game. “It was like, ‘That’s crazy, we really had Apopka inside of a hole.’ … That kind of like motivated me to get back and ready to get working.”
Sheppard has been equally impressed about the way the season has started, although he would like to see some mistakes minimized.
“What’s crazy is that we could even be a better team than we’re letting on,” Sheppard said. “We had Apopka 13-0 and [Jeff] Rolson does a good job with them, so they ended up coming back and shut us down in the second half.
“So we were competitive with the No. 2 team in the state and they beat Dr. Phillips tonight, and they’re also a good team. Wekiva is a good team, a playoff team and everybody is expecting them to make some real big noise this year, so we’re competitive with anybody. This group of kids we’ve got works hard and they’re quiet. They just get about their job. … blue-collar workers.”
