TAMPA — A snap over the quarterback’s head. Another over the punter’s head and through the end zone. A kickoff that everyone just watched bounce around until the other team recovered it. An interception. The opponent throwing four touchdown passes.
And that was just the first quarter.
It was that kind of night for Freedom, as New Tampa neighborhood rival Wharton drove down Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to deliver its annual beatdown, pounding the Patriots 59-0 Friday night.
Wharton quarterback Ty Nesmith completed 12 of 14 passes for 177 yards and four touchdowns, and ran for three others, while safety Devin Etienne set a school record with four interceptions, including a 101-yard return for a touchdown.
It was Wharton’s eighth straight win in the series, and fourth straight shutout in which the Wildcats have outscored the Patriots 187-0. The Patriots haven’t scored on Wharton since 2022, and it lost that game 76-6.
Wharton coach Abner Smith III will take it. His team is 3-0 against teams that are a combined 0-8 this season, but the Wildcats have outscored them 155-10 and are getting better every week.
“We weren’t really focused on the score, we just wanted to be able to execute the gameplan,” Smith III said. “We got some tough games coming up here in a couple weeks, and we wanted to make sure that everything that we were doing was going to be conducive to being successful in those weeks. So overall, man, I’m proud of … our output tonight.”
Wharton was up 30-0 after one quarter. Nesmith carved up Freedom, completing seven straight passes, four of them for touchdowns — to Justin Thomas, Tyler Bonarski, Omari Blackmon and Jammar Bembow — as the Wildcats came out fast.
Nesmith now has run and passed for 16 combined touchdowns in three games.
“I think Ty has looked this way all season, man,” Smith III said. “I think we got a great offensive unit led by the best quarterback in the city, and I really feel that way. Our backfield is solid with Berry Sanders, and we got a really good receiving core.”
Freedom’s first drive of the game, meanwhile, started with a run for a loss, a fumble when the ball was snapped before quarterback Taj Leathers was ready for it, a sack by Wharton’s Indel Mountfleury, a Patriot penalty and a snap over the punter’s head resulting in a safety.
Freedom never recovered, and Wharton never stopped scoring. Nesmith added three rushing touchdowns to his air attack and the defense did the rest. Jayden Ramballi had two sacks and a tackle in the backfield, and Etienne, with help from a critical block by Blackmon, registered his pick-six a minute before halftime, making it 52-0 at the break.
The Patriots had a few scoring chances, dropping a wide-open touchdown pass and having another touchdown called back by penalty, and were led by Jaheim Sewer, who had 87 yards rushing.