The Ponte Vedra Sharks opened district play with a gritty 17-14 victory over the Beachside Barracudas in the Shark Tank, that saw both teams battle wet and sloppy conditions.
Although it was not raining, the field was extremely slippery, which made cutting and changing direction tricky at times and the wet ball changed hands several times throughout the game due to fumbles.
The approach to how the teams went ahead with dealing with the wet conditions differed as the Sharks relied heavily on Brian Case and the offensive line to create big plays in the rushing game, which Case was able to do with a pair of touchdown runs in the first half to give the Sharks a 14-0 halftime advantage.
The first of his touchdown runs was a 70-yarder where he emerged through the line of scrimmage, gained momentum by stiff-arming a defender and then outran the secondary down the right sideline like he was shot out of a cannon.
He also scored on a short yardage run later in the second quarter to help the Sharks grow the lead.
Meanwhile, the Barracudas ran their high-flying passing offense, but it had a tough time establishing a rhythm in the first half as the wet ball created problems both for receivers catching passes and Eddie Jordan throwing it.
The result was balls slipping through intended receivers’ hands and several overthrown passes, which set up many long third-downs, which allowed the Sharks defensive front to pin their ears back and really harass Jordan in the pocket.
Despite being up by two scores, it seemed like the Sharks could have been up even more because they had been having success moving the ball down the field, but fumbles wound up halting potential additional scoring drives.
Eventually, the Barracudas began to find a rhythm as their offense could not be held down all game and they scored a pair of touchdowns in the second half to knot up the contest at 14-all.
However, it was the Sharks that had the last say on the night, as they kicked a game-winning field goal and picked up a major district win in the process, as they would not be denied despite the sloppy conditions.
Next up, the Sharks will host Menendez on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m., while the Barracudas go on the road once again to face the Bishop Kenny Crusaders in Jacksonville.
