WELLINGTON – It was a tale of two halves for the invigorated Wellington Wolverines football team.
With new head coach Danny Mendoza at the helm, the home team won both of their spring jamboree games on the night of May 27. The two victories for Wellington were in Game 1 against Royal Palm Beach (20-0 win) and in Game 3 against Forest Hill (15-6 win).
In four total quarters of play – two each against the Wildcats and the Falcons – Wolverines junior-to-be quarterback Ryan Anthony was simply the best player on the field for all three teams. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound signal caller used both his arm and legs to find the end zone on four of six total possessions, with two passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in those two wins.
On the passing front, Anthony was 6-for-11 with 70 yards and two scores. He added three carries for 26 yards and two touchdowns.
Anthony is a player one cannot define by a stat sheet. His combination of energy, leadership, and poise was more than enough to help the Wolverines defend their home turf.
One only needs to see Anthony live in action. One only needs to see his film to really understand the level of impact he possesses as a quarterback.
“I feel like everybody has come together with the same goal,” Anthony said. “Everyone just wants to get out there and win. I think that’s what we just did.”
The best offensive play of the spring jamboree was arguably Anthony’s 33-yard touchdown pass on a corner route to senior-to-be wide receiver Reece Larson, which happened at the 1:13 mark of the first quarter against Royal Palm Beach.
True to himself as a leader, Anthony deflected the praise and gave a lot of credit to another Wellington unit.
“I like watching the defense make plays out there,” Anthony said. “It’s exciting to see them making big hits. It gets everyone pumped up.”
Anthony spoke on a game-changing play the featured a Wellington goal-line stop against Forest Hill. Up 15-6 and possibly facing a nail-biter in the final seconds or even overtime, Wellington thwarted a two-point conversion run attempt by Forest Hill that preserved its nine-point lead with 4:42 left in the game.
“We have been going over that every practice,” Anthony said. “Every day, we walk through that. To see it work out, it’s kind of cool.”
Mendoza reflected on his first two wins as a head coach at Wellington, even though they don’t officially count in the record books due to them being spring exhibition games.
“The kids were fired up,” Mendoza said. “Our kids stepped up to the challenge and took care of business. It’s a great experience to come out here, put all of our hard work on to the surface, and see what the result was.”
