Big second half lifts Jones to much-needed football win over Edgewater

Sports admin October 13, 2026 0 Comments

Big second half lifts Jones to much-needed football win over Edgewater

The Jones High football team was reeling after losing the Class 4A District 7 championship to Lake Wales in nasty rain conditions on Thursday night. The Tigers needed something to boost their morale and Edgewater was next in line.

The two teams met Monday night in a make-up game from an earlier weather postponement, and the way things started, it did not appear as if Jones, ranked No. 3 in the Sentinel’s Super 16 Coaches Poll, was ready to get off the mat. No. 6 Edgewater had the advantage after an ugly first half with a 7-3 halftime lead.

But Jones somehow rallied the troops, coming out swinging in the second half. Thanks to a dominating defense and the running of little freshman Bennie Johnson, the Tigers put together a full-force effort on both sides of the ball to beat the visiting Eagles 25-14.

“Hats off to Jones. They played a good game and they came out with the victory,” Edgewater coach Patrick Browning said. “We had a turnover that really swung the momentum and they capitalized on it. So we’re gonna go back to work and get ready for Evans (Friday) and put this one behind us.”

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It appeared that a Jones (5-2) turnover was the momentum swinger to start the second half. On the first series of the third quarter, Edgewater’s Durell Mitchell Jr., jumped a passing route and intercepted a ball thrown by first-time Jones starting quarterback Ayden Edgecome. Mitchell returned the ball 45-yards for a touchdown and it seemed Edgewater (4-3) was ready to take the game over.

The first half was brutal. Jones managed just 35 yards in the first 24 minutes. Edgewater was only able to muster 53. But thanks to Mitchell’s pick-6, the Eagles had a 14-3 lead.

Jones started moving the ball on its second possession of the second half as the Tigers got their running game going behind Johnson and Damir Williams. But the drive stalled and Spencer Bartholomew, who earlier had kicked a 45-yard field goal, missed a 46-yarder and the Tigers’ doldrums continued.

But big Jones defensive end Fred Ards changed everything on the next series with the turnover Browning referred. Edgewater quarterback Dylan Troutman lost the football and Ards, who is committed to Texas A&M, grabbed the ball in the air and returned it 23 yards for his own pick-6 fumble recovery. That gave Jones had new life.

The Tigers, having lost starting quarterback Peyton Carroll to a shoulder injury last week, ushered in Edgecombe as a first-time starter.

Jones seemed lost on offense at times, discombobulated with personnel changes and confusion with lining up. The Tigers came out of the gates throwing the ball, a plan put in play to loosen up the Edgewater defense and make way for the running game for Jones in the second half. It worked.

Edgewater had done a few things offensively that Jones was not expecting, so the Jones defense, instead of going into the locker room at halftime, stayed on the sidelines under the tent to watch the video monitor of first-half letdowns. Defensive coordinator Billy Daniels showed his players exactly what they were missing and they took note.

“We couldn’t block them up front and they did some stunts and the O-line had a hard time blocking. We didn’t run the ball at all in the first half,” said Jones offensive coordinator Dale Williams, who also noted the Tigers were plagued by a few injuries, most notably to Carroll. “The first half we wanted to throw the ball to stretch them out and loosen them up and the second half we came out and ran the ball down their throat so they couldn’t make adjustments.”

On Jones’ second possession of the second half, it was more running from Johnson, as he racked up 49 yards of a 65-yard Jones drive, capping it off with a 24-yard touchdown run on a 4th-down-and-2 play. The play was a thing of beauty for defensive linemen Braylon Otis and Dajur Web. Jones inserted the two big men into the offense for blocking purposes and it paid off, helping free Johnson for the score.

“(Johnson) did a good job. He runs hard for us and Damir did a good job too before he got hurt,” Williams said. ”

Johnson is all of 5-foot-8, 155 pounds but he runs much bigger and he was huge for the final two quarters. He ended up with 93 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. His second touchdown came after Caleb Reed intercepted a pass and returned it to the Edgewater 2-yard line. Johnson punched it in from there.

The Jones defense was superb in the second half. Sharad Haire got his second interception in as many games along with a nice pass break-up. Ards and Dominique Redding combined for a sack, Andre James Jr. had a sack and two big pass break-ups, and Reed added a tackle-for loss to his interception.

Edgewater’s defense had its moments. Mitchell, who has had a great season, added a pass breakup along with his interception, Cordale Nunn had a tackle for loss, Sheldon Jenkins-Lee had a sack and a TFL, Jamarcus Tanner had a sack and a PBU, Mike Darden had a PBU and Caden Epps, Wes Hendry and Will Grinage all had sacks.

The win was a shot of energy for Jones, still the No. 4-ranked team in Class 4A according to MaxPreps. That is one spot ahead of Lake Wales, even though the Highlanders defeated the Tigers. Jones has Brandon, Lake Region and West Orange remaining.

Edgewater, No. 5 in 6A coming into the game, has games to play vs. Evans, Dr. Phillips and Boone.

Chris Hays can be found at X.com@OS_ChrisHays.

This story was originally published October 12, 2026 at 11:47 PM.