Between a team that returns many talented players in Pensacola Catholic and another that has many untested players in its ranks in Navarre, Friday night at Gorecki-LeBeau Stadium offered a unique duel for both sides.
On the one hand, it offered the young Raiders a chance to grow. On the other hand, it showed how dominant the Crusaders can be in the 2024 season.
Here are three takeaways from Friday’s Pensacola Catholic-Navarre football game, which ended in a 33-0 victory for the Crusaders.
A healthy CJ is a scoring CJ
After an ankle injury that limited his playing time in 2023, CJ Nettles is fully healthy and ready for 2024. He was a standout in his sophomore year, rushing for over 1,200 yards, and was limited to 852 yards in nine games. One of his most spectacular games was Week 1 last year against Navarre.
Nettles, however, picked up where he left off, unofficially rushing for 72 yards, scoring two touchdowns – one of 7 and one of 11 yards – and catching a pass for 25 yards.
On the second touchdown, Nettles had one goal in mind: to find Pensacola Catholic High School principal Sister Kierstin Martin and bring her the football.
“I told her we had our pep rally at school and I said, ‘I’ll get you the ball.’ She said, ‘OK,’ and I did,” Nettles said, smiling. “I was just excited to celebrate with the guys.”
Pensacola Catholic head coach Matt Adams was happy to see the Nettles back at full strength.
“CJ ran really, really fast,” Adams said. “It was great. He made some great plays tonight and made catches that I thought, ‘Oh, that was nice.’ I’m glad to have him back and I’m glad he’s OK.”
Nettles, who recently transferred to Furman University, was also quick to praise the offensive line for the success of the running game.
“The running game has been very important for us. … My offensive line is better than anybody here. We just trust them and they get the job done,” Nettles said. “We’re a very balanced team because we have good receivers, good backs and a good line. … That’s just what we do.”
Pensacola Catholic has a wall of defense
Four Division I defensive linemen will be on each Crusaders offense for the 2024 season. Jeremiah Shelby (Air Force) and Terius Mason (Eastern Kentucky) have already announced their commitments. Dacaris Brown and Justin Weatherall – a four-star recruit as a junior – have numerous offers.
When Navarre ran the ball, the Raiders were usually faced with a wall — whether it was one of the defensive linemen or a linebacker right behind them hitting hard. Between minimal advantages and a few errors in Navarre’s offense that led to high snaps over the quarterback’s head and negative yardage, Pensacola Catholic unofficially held their opponents to less than 20 yards.
And Pensacola Catholic didn’t allow a single first down, except when Navarre made its final drive in the fourth quarter and the game was already decided. The Crusaders had the second line of defense on the field at that point.
“It just shows we’re the best in town. … It’s proving it right now. We threw a shutout and they didn’t get any first downs,” Shelby said of the defensive line. “We made a stop and knew we had them cornered. We did that on every drive and made sure they couldn’t touch us.”
Pensacola Catholic’s stifling defense resulted in a safety in the second half – after a nice punt by Harrison Stanley pinned the Raiders at their own 1-yard line – and the defense also forced an interception recorded by Nigel Nelson.
“Coach (Kerry) McDowell and the defense were ready to go. They did a great job all night long,” Adams said. “I was really proud of the way our defense played.”
Self-inflicted wounds for the Raiders
The aforementioned missed snaps caused problems for Navarre, who just couldn’t find a rhythm from the start. It also didn’t help that the Raiders suffered some early injuries, such as to starting quarterback Roman Marshall. Navarre played with Travis Lowe from the middle of the second quarter until the end of the game.
Head coach Garrett Bagley also noted that Navarre lost its starting running back, its backup running back and its starting safety throughout the game.
“And those are just the four that come to mind,” Bagley said. “Everyone else is practicing. If we don’t rely on them to come in, they might as well not come to practice. We’ll see what those injuries look like. We’ll make our adjustments over the weekend and do our best next week.”
Bagley said it comes down to the basics, and playing against a team like Pensacola Catholic didn’t help the Crusaders when they took advantage of turnovers.
“It’s a big task. We knew it was going to be a big task. We just have to get better,” Bagley said of battling Pensacola Catholic’s defense. “I told our guys it was going to be a game where we were going to have to really dig in and get some things going in our favor. … Those turnovers obviously don’t help against a team like Catholic.”
Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. Reach him at X (@BenGriecoSports) and by email at [email protected]..
