Pace notches key district road victory against Navarre

NAVARRE — The Pace football team bent the Navarre defense without much success for three quarters.

The Raiders finally broke late in the fourth.

The Patriots scored on a 5-yard Tyler Hunt run with 3:20 left in the fourth quarter to seal a 21-7 win in District 1-4A action Friday.

They did it over a defensive-minded Navarre (2-6, 1-3) team that refused to snap in the face of a Pace (5-4, 3-1) offense that dominated possession all game.

“I thought our defense, defensive front played well,” Navarre coach Chad Lashley said. “I think they had the ball for a while and they were able to wear us down.

“Just offensively we didn’t get the job done. We didn’t make plays when we had the opportunity to make plays.”

Pace’s Tyler Hunt finished with 116 yards on 30 carries to lead all rushers. Navarre quarterback Andrew Velazquez was 11-of-24 for 201 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

After Pace was rebuffed only by its own miscues in the first half, the Navarre defense stiffened even more in the second half and forced Pace to punt twice and stopped a key fourth-and-1 with 8:22 to play down just 13-7. But three plays later Velazquez was sacked in the process of throwing on a mad scramble, and the ball fluttered into the hands of Pace’s Ryne Burkett. He ran the pick back to the Navarre 28 to set up Hunt’s game-sealing score.

“I thought we played well defensively,” Lashley said. “The thing that disappointed me early in the game was they made a couple mistakes defensively and we didn’t get the ball out or held the ball too long.

“When they make mistakes, you better be able to capitalize because they don’t make many mistakes.”

The Raider defense did most of the heavy lifting for Navarre and forced two turnovers in the first half to keep Pace out of the end zone, but it couldn’t cash in either takeaway.

The first was a fumble recovery by Armani Williams deep in Navarre’s end on Pace’s first possession, but the ensuing drive fizzled on the Pace 26-yard line. The next was a 63-yard interception return by Tre’Von Allen inside the Pace 25, but Velazquez was sacked three times and the Raiders again turned it over on downs.

The Patriot offense controlled the vast majority of possession and kept the exhausted Raider defense working. Pace scored on drives of 12 and 10 plays in the first half, the first of which ended with a 3-yard run from Hunt while the second finished on a 21-yard pass from David Casey to Zach Lewis for a 13-0 lead just before the half. Navarre got its only score at the tail end of the third quarter off a 31-yard strike to Will Posey to draw to within six.

The Pace defense, which tallied seven sacks in all, ultimately did enough to limit Navarre’s offense. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins for Pace, but it puts the Patriots in prime position to clinch the district’s second playoff spot next week after Milton lost big to Pine Forest to drop its third straight game.

“We played well enough to win,” Pace coach Mickey Lindsey said. “It’s always big to win on the road. The defense did a great job of holding them and we scored when we had to on offense. It’s a big district win for us.”

Pace 21, Navarre 7

Pace               6                      7                      0                    8—21

Navarre          0                      0                      7                      0—7

First quarter

P – Tyler Hunt 3 run (kick blocked); 26.9

Second quarter

P – Zach Lewis 21 pass from David Casey (Greg Peranich kick); 2:03

Third quarter

N – Will Posey 21 pass from Andrew Velazquez (Ian Lockwood kick); 1:13

Fourth quarter

P – Hunt 5 run (conversion good); 3:20

                                                 Pace             Navarre

First downs                         18                      8

Rushes-yards                     47-208             22-32

Passing yards                       121                  201

Comp./Att./Int.                  8-10-1              11-24-1

Fumbles-lost                        2-1                     1-0

Penalties-yards                     2-20                 5-47

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING— Pace: Austin Autrey 2-4, David Casey 12-52, Tyler Hunt 30-116, Alex Brandt 1-3, Thomas McCorvey 2-35; Navarre: Andrew Velazquez 12-(-14), Michael Pettus 6-40, Will Posey 4-6.

PASSING— Pace: David Casey 8-10-1 121; Navarre: Andrew Velazquez 11-24-1 201.

RECEIVING— Pace: Josh Reeves 4-35, Zach Lewis 5-70, Richard Carrion 1-16; Navarre: Michael Pettus 3-60, Joel Beauchemin 3-35, Will Posey 3-31, Brad Leggett 1-43, Dewayne Carter 1-32.