South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Nelson throws for 4 TDs in Flying L’s 2nd straight shutout
LAUDERDALE LAKES — T.J. Nelson completed 17 of 29 passes for 234 yards and four touchdowns to lift visiting Fort Lauderdale to a 27-0 victory over Boyd Anderson in the District 11-3M opener for both teams on Friday night.
After a sluggish start, Fort Lauderdale (4-0, 1-0) seized a 13-0 halftime lead on two Nelson TD passes and cruised to a second consecutive shutout. The senior quarterback threw TD tosses of 23 and 73 yards to give the L’s the early advantage.
“What I take from this is it is not how you start; it is how you finish,” said Nelson, who matched his season total of four TDs entering the contest. “The first two drives we went three-and-out and we came together as a team, and we scored. I stopped worrying too much. I knew we were going to beat them; it was just a matter of time.”
Fort Lauderdale capitalized on a short punt and marched 57 yards in 12 plays capped by a Nelsonto-Jermarri Watson TD connection for 23 yards.
After a 33-yard kickoff return by Boyd Anderson, which gave the Cobras (0-3, 0-1) the ball on the Fort Lauderdale
20, the L’s defense held on
fourth-and-8 from their own 15-yard line with 3:22 remaining.
It took just two plays for Fort Lauderdale to strike paydirt as Nelson hit junior wide receiver Keyveon Johnson for a 12-yard pickup and then connected with senior Pat Boyd Jr. over the middle, with him taking it the distance 73 yards for the 13-0 lead with
2:41 remaining in the first half.
Fort Lauderdale took the second-half kickoff and extended the lead to 20-0 on a 27-yard scoring pass from Nelson to Boyd with
8:54 left in the third quarter. Nelson iced the game with his fourth scoring toss of the night as he connected with Watson for a second time, this one covering 32 yards for the score with 2:33 remaining.
“Four touchdowns are pretty good, but I can do better. “We found out it doesn’t matter who we play, we can fight through adversity and win. It was big to get the district win.”
Fort Lauderdale coach Richard Dunbar said the team showed the effects of being off from a long road trip to Tallahassee where they defeated Tallahassee Leon 38-0 two weeks ago.
He said their practices have been interrupted by rain, so the game was definitely a grind.
“It’s not an excuse,” Dunbar said. “We still came out flat and didn’t take care of the things we needed to take care of. Moving forward, we can’t play how we played tonight. We just got to be better.
“All season long, our defense has been resilient,” Dunbar added. “They have fought through adversity. After giving up 63 points to Doral in the preseason kickoff classic, they made a vow that they were going to work harder, play harder and they are proving it right now. That showed on any Friday night, you can get your teeth kicked in, so we had to play better. We got to get better, but I am happy with how they are playing right now.”