(This story has been updated to add new information and to add a photo or video.)
The scoreboard clock struck zero at 9:10 p.m. on Nov. 21, and in a flash, Cole Rosendahl knew his travel plans were about to slide through the virtual shredder.
Not that Ponte Vedra’s senior quarterback is complaining.
“I’m just glad that I get to cancel my Thanksgiving trips,” he said, “just to stay here and play some more football.”
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More football indeed, after a Shark feeding frenzy to bury visiting Beachside 38-3 in the Florida High School Athletic Association Region 1-5A playoffs on Nov. 21.
Now, before the Sharks sit down to their Thanksgiving feast, they’ll gather for another assignment: high school football practice on a holiday morning. Head coach Steve Price, himself a past state champion, has already drawn it up.
“At 9 a.m., Thanksgiving Day,” he said. “An early morning at the Shark Tank.”
That Thanksgiving practice is the first for the school since 2016, the year the Sharks stormed to the FHSAA Class 5A title game behind Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Football Nick Tronti and nearly won it all against Plantation American Heritage.
Thanksgiving’s early-morning start will arrive thanks to a shorter-than-expected night, an evening of outright running-clock domination against a Beachside (8-4) squad that had handed Ponte Vedra a 33-20 defeat two months earlier. That game had started the Barracudas on the way to the first district championship in the school’s history.
Ponte Vedra turned the tables to boot the Barracudas from postseason for the second consecutive year. Senior quarterback Cole Rosendahl launched four touchdown passes and senior linebacker Talan Babin delivered a game to remember: a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, two pass breakups and a scoring return off a punt block.
The Sharks, only a week removed from an emotional overtime triumph over Niceville, buried any bad memories from the start.
“I don’t even think we look like the same defense that that film [from the September Beachside game] showed,” Babin said.
BABIN STARS FOR SHARKS
Where there was a highlight on defense, Babin usually wasn’t far away.
The roll call of stats: a strip-sack and forced fumble that Ethan Holmes recovered for the Sharks. Another sack, plus two pass breakups, among seven deflections on the day for Ponte Vedra.
Babin also scored the evening’s back-breaking play, a 15-yard blocked punt return after Carter Ottesen had swatted the ball off the foot of Beachside punter Owen Carey. That stretched the score to 24-0, and for Beachside (8-4), there was no road back.
Led by Babin, Reece Beck and JP Dolan, Ponte Vedra constantly hurried Barracudas senior Eddie Jordan, who completed 22 of 36 passes for 194 yards but had no gains longer than 17.
“We did a great job on the underneath routes and we got a lot of pass pressure on the quarterback,” Price said. “It was very difficult for them to get the ball off on time.”
Babin already averaged nearly eight tackles per game while carrying on a proud family tradition. He credits film sessions with his father, two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Babin, with shaping him into a prospect on the road to college football at Old Dominion.
“We watch a lot of film at home in the living room,” the younger Babin said. “I stream it to the TV and we sit down and just talk ball, really. He’s really knowledgeable because he’s watched a lot of film in his day.”
SHARKS’ OFFENSE KEEPS HUMMING
Rosendahl’s season statistics as a junior: 5 of 12, 91 yards, two interceptions. So how many fans would have predicted him as Northeast Florida’s regular season passing leader?
Well, he’s there now. After years of patiently waiting and building his game on the bench, the senior has broken out in a big way with 2,707 yards and 26 touchdowns through 11 games.
Friday was more of the same. Beginning with a 49-yard downfield strike to Davitt Doherty that got the scoreboard moving, he finished 16 of 21 for 196 yards and four touchdowns. Jack Berquist led with 83 yards receiving.
Compared to the first round against Beachside, Ponte Vedra’s ground game has grown up. Behind a well-drilled and nearly penalty-free offensive line, Alex Winkles churned out 76 yards on 14 carries to surpass 1,000 yards on the year.
“We’ve established the run game, and it’s gotten better and better,” Rosendahl said.
Job complete? Not at all. Ponte Vedra’s next challenge comes Nov. 28 against Daytona Beach Mainland. Once, Rosendahl thought he might be traveling then. Now, he’s not far from making different plans. Two more wins, and Ponte Vedra will be punching its ticket for Miami in mid-December. History awaits. But Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving practice, comes first.
“I think we’re on a roll right now,” Rosendahl said, “and it’s going to be hard to stop us.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ponte Vedra Sharks in chomp mode in football regionals. What’s next?
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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