Dolphin QB Tyler Phelps carries the ball through Fort Walton territory during the first quarter of last Friday night’s game at Gulf Breeze High School. (Photo by Mat Pellegrino | South Santa Rosa News)
Gulf Breeze Dolphin football fans lined “The Tank” last Friday.
With them, they brought anticipation.
Anticipation that the Dolphins were going to prove that they were a brand new team thanks to the fresh face they had as their leader.
That new face was Bobby Clayton, the team’s new head coach. He replaced Chris Nemith, who stepped down as head coach after the 2015 football season.
But Clayton wasn’t all that new.
He had walked the same halls the football players walk every day back in the early 90’s. And now, he was home.
Clayton graduated from GBHS back in 1993 and was chosen from a pool of nearly 150 applicants as the new head coach back in February.
During the Jamboree last Friday night against Fort Walton Beach High School, Clayton knew he had a lot to prove, admitting he was a bit nervous before the start of the scrimmage game.
“I was nervous, but excited,” he said. “I told (my players), ‘I’ve probably never been more excited to coach a game of football in my life.’”
His nervousness diminished quickly after the Freshman Dolphins team won 6-0, followed by a 14-0 JV win and finally the Varsity team sweeping the Vikings 35-6.
During the pre-season game, each division played a certain portion of each half. Freshman and JV players each played a 12-minute quarter. But everyone’s eyes were focused mainly on the Varsity team that night, who had to play an entire half against the Vikings.
With only 24 minutes to play, the Dolphins paced themselves through most of the first quarter. Fort Walton won the coin toss and elected to receive, but they were ultimately forced to turn over the ball after failing to plow their way through Dolphin defense.
The Dolphins picked up the ball on their own 18 and inched their way down the field 10 to 15 yards at a time until they found themselves on Fort Walton’s 12-yard line.
Six-foot-tall Dolphin QB Tyler Phelps made a quick pitch to Tyler Dittmer near the 10-yard line, which allowed the 5’8” running back to push his way through Viking defense to score the first touchdown for the Dolphins with a little over 6 minutes left in the first quarter.
The ball found its way back to the Vikings on the turnover, but the momentum for Ft. Walton didn’t last after their QB, Brendon Carter, fumbled the ball. The ground ball was ultimately scooped up by Jacob Tisdale at the Dolphin 40-yard line.
Since the Dolphins were already in their own territory, they played it slow and ran the ball down the field, eventually ending up on Ft. Walton’s 11-yard line.
Dittmer made it his second touchdown of the game after Phelps pitched the ball to the sophomore, allowing him to squeeze past Viking defense for the Dolphins second touchdown with a little over 3 minutes left in the quarter.
The Vikings eventually forced themselves into Dolphin territory at the end of the first quarter and found themselves on the Gulf Breeze16-yard line at the beginning of the second and last quarter of the Jamboree.
The Dolphin defense seemed adamant about keeping the Vikings at bay and held their offense off at the 17-yard line where they were forced to kick a field goal after a fourth and 12, which was no good.
With a little over a minute chipped away in the final quarter, the Dolphins started off at their 20-yard line after the turnover.
Phelps threw an incomplete pass to Cole Sheppard, but the senior QB didn’t sweat it.
The next play would be the one that would force Dolphin fans out of their seat.
New GBHS head football coach, Bobby Clayton, gives his Varsity players a pep talk before the start of the Varsity Jamboree game last Friday. (Photo by Mat Pellegrino | South Santa Rosa News)
With little pressure from Viking defense, Phelps threw the ball to Parker Baynes, who hopped down the right sideline past Viking players to the end zone for a touchdown.
The 75-yard run was met with celebration, and put the Dolphins ahead 21-0 after the point after.
The Vikings eventually handed the ball back to the Dolphins after a turnover on downs and a few hand-offs from Phelps to his fellow offense allowed the Dolphins to make their way to the Viking 15-yard line with a little over 6 minutes left in the game.
Baynes proved he could keep up with fellow teammate Dittmer and caught an open pass in the end zone to put an extra 6 on the board for the Dolphins with 6:31 left in the game.
After the turnover, Ft. Walton’s Carter attempted a pass to one of his offense players on their first play and it was intercepted by Dolphin wide receiver Walter Yates. Yates was able to run the ball to the Viking 12-yard line. After the play, Phelps made a quick pass to Rocky O’Rourke for a Dolphin touchdown with 6:03 left in the game.
With the score 35-0 the Vikings seemed eager to put a touchdown on the scoreboard, and they did during their first play after the Dolphin turnover.
Carter made a quick hand-off to Caleb Womack who ran it nearly 70 yards down the open field for a Viking touchdown with 4:25 left in the game. The Viking’s point after was no good.
Gulf Breeze allowed the clock to run down, ending the game 35-6.
“We got a few things we have to clean up, but I thought the effort was there,” Clayton said after the game. “The guys were getting after it, which was exciting. But again, we have some things to work on.”
