Game of the week: Nicholls, Terry lead Wolfson offense in win over rival Stanton

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Aidan Nicholls and Tyler Terry have been together on the field and friends off the field for a long time — long, at least, by the standards of being in high school.

But the 1-2 duo — quarterback Nicholls wears No. 1, while running back Terry dons No. 2 — did something unique Friday night even by their standards.

Nicholls and Terry both topped 160 rushing yards against Stanton in the News4Jax Game of the Week, and they accounted for all six touchdowns and four 2-point conversions as the Wolfpack rolled to a 44-0 victory in a homecoming celebration.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL | Check out the scores, TV coverage from Week 7

Terry ripped off scoring runs of 1, 3, 54 and 20 on the way to 162 yards on 16 carries. Nicholls carried 21 times for 168 yards and a 2-yard touchdown run to go with an 18-yard scoring pass to Ryan Horton.

The output astonished both of them.

“Oh really?” Nicholls asked with a little surprise when told of the stats. “That’s my best friend. That’s Tyler. We both kind of run the offense together. We had a great time and a good night together.”

Each have had their own individual big nights, but this was the first either could remember where they both racked up the stats.

“We’ve been together for a while,” said Terry, who ran for four 2-point conversions. “The chemistry shows. We’ve had our own separate big games but this is the first time we ever came together for one.”

Nicholls pointed out that the victory was a team effort. Wolfson (2-5), which had only beaten Sunshine State Athletic Conference member Christ’s Church Academy this season, smothered the Blue Devils offense. Stanton (0-6) ran 28 plays and had positive yardage on only 12 of those, rushing for nine yards total on 23 carries.

Among the Wolfpack defenders delivering big games were Eric Sheets, who had 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack, a forced and a recovered fumble, and Alijah Robinson who had two tackles for loss. Dallas Kemp added a sack as Wolfson allowed only 53 total yards.

“A win like this just propels you, when you beat your new rival,” Wolfpack coach Dennis Bettinger said, referencing Wolfson and Stanton both having college-prep magnet school status. “You look at the alumni, the fans, the kids, it means a lot to them. And me, too, of course.”

A difficult season continues for youthful Stanton, which has nine freshmen and 16 sophomores on its 42-player roster. The inexperience came to the forefront when team captain, center and linebacker Alex Smith — described by coach Michael Healey as the team’s best player — was injured on the first play with a broken finger. That forced two freshmen into key roles in the interior of the offensive line.

That was a major blow for a team that entered Friday being outscored 268 to 16 over five games.

“Covid came and we lost a whole senior class,” Healey said. “We’re a JV football team. I give credit to (Wolfson), they have a good team, they’ve gotten better, but we’re really not at full capacity.

“Next year, when they’re 10th and 11th graders, then we’ll see something different.”

There were some bright spots for the Blue Devils. Freshman linebacker Deshaun Speights was in on seven tackles, including one for a loss. Senior Kaymin Baldwin added a sack while classmate Reuben Amarh was in on six stops, with a tackle for loss. Junior Byron Morales tacked on a handful of tackles and a fumble recovery.

Just before the end of the first half, quarterback Nabil Boulos lobbed up a pass under pressure, and receiver Anderson Eller out-maneuvered the defensive back for a catch and took off down the sideline for a 43-yard gain to the Wolfpack 20. But, after picking up the second of its four total first downs, a fourth-down attempt in the end zone fell incomplete, ending Stanton’s sole scoring chance.

Sophomore Alphonso Foster rushed four times for 32 yards, including a 20-yarder on the game’s penultimate play, the only Blue Devils first down over the final 24 minutes.

More often than not, the inexperience showed. Miscues, including three different times when Stanton failed to come up with a squib or pooch kick, led to Wolfson starting six of its 10 possessions in Blue Devils territory.

At one point in the second quarter, the Wolfpack had run 30 plays to nine for Stanton. That seemed to wear on the Blue Devils defense, which allowed 211 of Wolfson’s 391 total yards in the final half, even with a running clock ticking away in the fourth quarter.

Bettinger can sympathize a bit with that level of inexperience. He has three seniors on the roster, while several key players, including Nicholls and Terry, are juniors. Freshmen such as Jordyn Bell, who plays defensive back, spells Terry on offense and returned the opening kick 50 yards, contribute as well.

Many of the players on the team were together in middle school at Landon and they now are starting to mesh as high schoolers. That has shown in a topsy-turvy season. Wolfson has been blown out by the likes of Hilliard, Parker and Daytona Beach Father Lopez. On the other hand, the Wolfpack absorbed losses in the closing minutes against Paxon and Fernandina Beach.

So Wolfson, too, is learning. But it helps to have players such as Nicholls and Terry who have been on the same page for some time.

“There’s nothing better,” Nicholls said. “We beat a rival, got the shutout, scored a lot of points. The tough games lead to stuff like this. We’ve never given up on the season. We came out here with some fight in us.”

Wolfson 44, Stanton 0

Stanton, 0, 0, 0, 0 — 0

Wolfson, 8, 14, 22, 0 — 44

W – Tyler Terry 1 run (Terry run)

W – Ryan Horton 18 pass from Aidan Nicholls (Terry run)

W – Terry 3 run (pass failed)

W – Terry 54 run (Terry run)

W – Nicholls 2 run (kick blocked)

W – Terry 20 run (Terry run)

Category: S  —   W

First downs: 4   —    18

Rushes-yards  23-9  —  48-373

Passing: 44   —    18

Comp-Att-Int  2-5-0  — 1-3-0

Fumbles-lost: 2-2  —  3-2

Penalties-Yards: 7-65  — 4-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — S: Alphonso Foster 4-32, Brooks Beach 7-6, Jewleen Reynolds 4-5, Anderson Eller 1-(-9), Christian Davis 5-(-10), Nabil Boulos 2-(-15). W: Nicholls 21-168, Terry 16-162, Daniel Davisson 5-17, Jordyn Bell 2-14, Conner Posgay 2-7, Cory Richerson 1-6, Team 1-(-1).

PASSING — S: Boulos 2-5-0-44. W: Nicholls 1-3-0-18.

RECEIVING — S: Eller 1-43, Davis 1-1. W: Horton 1-18.