After a block-in-the-back penalty wiped out a defensive touchdown and pinned the Wekiva High School Mustangs near their own goal line, first-year head coach Ashton Watts gathered his team on the sideline. 

“This is not the old Wekiva,” Watts shouted. “Clean it up. Are we gonna go back to the old or change for the better?”  

Wekiva lost both games at its spring football jamboree Friday, falling 14-0 to Leesburg High School and 9-0 to Horizon High School. 

But Watts believed the night still revealed progress, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. 

“I like that [defensive coordinator] Jerry Middleton brings his mentality into the way he coaches,” Watts said. “He does an amazing job. He runs some college-level style defense. When he’s getting them to buy in, man, they’re starting to fly around. 

“So it’s a lot to clean up. We got to find the right pieces, but man, he’s cleaning it up, and I love what he does.” 

The jamboree featured three rotating two-quarter games, beginning with Wekiva against Leesburg. Horizon then faced Leesburg before the Mustangs closed the night against Horizon. 

Against Leesburg, Wekiva’s defense opened strong. The Mustangs forced fourth-and-14 on the opening possession, giving the offense good field position after a roughing penalty pushed them near midfield. 

Quarterback Dominick Sanguine quickly found Dominique Walker for completions of 10 and 15 yards, moving the ball inside the 25. But the drive unraveled with multiple high snaps. One sailed over Sanguine’s head before another bad snap and intentional grounding penalty pushed the Mustangs all the way back behind midfield, eventually forcing a punt. 

The snap miscues were noted by Watts. 

“We gotta get the snap,” Watts said. “So in the first game, we got a lot of bad snaps, but we got a young center. This is his first game really playing football. So I was impressed with the adversity that he faced in the second half, and he kind of turned it around the way he started snapping the ball much better.” 

Leesburg capitalized midway through the second quarter when a miscommunication between Sanguine and receiver Givonny Bufford led to an interception returned for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. 

Despite the mistake, Wekiva answered with one of its best offensive drives of the night. Walker hauled in another first-down catch, while running back Landon Jerome powered through the middle for a 15-yard gain. Sanguine also connected with Bakary Manley and Robert Hollis to move into Leesburg territory. 

The drive stalled on fourth down at the 25-yard line. 

Later in the half, linebacker Deandre Payne blew through the line for a sack, but Leesburg eventually broke loose on a spinning run that reached the Wekiva 15 before punching in a touchdown with 17 seconds left. 

The Mustangs nearly produced a highlight on the final play of the game. Manley caught a short pass near the right sideline, reversed field and outran nearly the entire defense before finally getting dragged down at the 5-yard line as time expired. 

In the jamboree’s middle matchup, Horizon defeated Leesburg 21-0 before Wekiva returned for its second game of the evening. 

The Mustangs again showed flashes defensively against Horizon. 

After allowing an early long run, Wekiva forced a fourth down then recovered a fumble at the line of scrimmage.  

The Mustangs’ next possession resulted in a short punt, but the defense stuffed consecutive runs and forced incompletions to create another turnover on downs. 

On their next play, a pass bounced off a helmet and fell into the hands of a Horizon defender. With the defense handling business, another possession ended when officials ruled a completed catch had turned into a fumble. 

The biggest momentum swings came after Wekiva’s defense forced another punt that was booted deep toward the goal line. Instead of letting the ball roll into the end zone for a touchback, Avante Scott picked it up at the 1-yard line. Horizon blitzed on the next play, tackling the Mustangs in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 lead. 

Moments later, Wekiva appeared to have its biggest play of the night when Scott forced a fumble in the backfield, scooped up the loose ball and sprinted the length of the field for a touchdown. The aforementioned block in the back penalty wiped out the play. 

Horizon eventually scored on a quarterback keeper in the final minutes to seal the 9-0 win. 

Even through the losses, Watts said the night served as a valuable learning experience for a roster still developing both physically and mentally. 

“Our offensive line is very young,” Watts said. “I think we have one senior, everybody else is a sophomore or rising sophomore. So we’re really, really young up front, so I’m excited just to see what they bring June 1st when it comes time to work out again.” 

Watts also pointed toward football IQ and situational awareness as areas the staff plans to attack during summer workouts. 

“Coaching them, man,” Watts said. “Some of it is football IQ. They don’t really know it yet. Some of them are still new to the game. So just teaching the game of football, sitting down on the board, ourselves as coaches getting better development, going to clinics, going to college practices and seeing how they’re doing it — IQ, that’s it.” 

Still, Watts made it clear that patience does not mean lowered expectations. 

“I’m not a moral victory guy,” Watts said. “My expectation is to win, and I want to win the city of Apopka. It hurts to lose a game no matter what. If I was playing dominoes, I’m gonna be pretty pissed off if I lose that. But I see the growth, and I just have to change my mindset a little bit to understand that I’m not gonna get all my wins in one year. I’m gonna have to put it all together little by little.”