Jadon Reese helped ignite the fire and energy the Navarre Raiders were looking for in their season opener at Fort Walton Beach Friday night.
Turning in a breakout performance, Reese caught three touchdown passes, all from Hunter Pfiester, while the defense played with a level of aggression that led to winning the turnover battle and the game in a 47-7 victory over the Vikings.
Navarre’s boys and girls golf teams both have experience on their side heading into the 2022 season.
Three seniors are on the boys team, including Drew Ottley, who won a playoff at the district tournament last year to earn a regional berth. Will Rivers and Brady Nevius are also seniors.
Though it’s been barely an hour since the sun has risen on a humid Tuesday morning in mid-August, there is a positive, upbeat vibe flowing through the Navarre cross-country runners.
They like the way the workouts have gone leading up to the season and are optimistic about what can be achieved.
Ethan Newman isn’t thrilled about the way last season ended. The Beach Bowl loss to rival Gulf Breeze in the season finale left a sour taste in the mouth of Navarre’s standout senior offensive lineman.
Fumbles and missed opportunities that November night not only left the Raiders with a 5-4 record, it also left them outside looking in when it came to the playoffs.
Six points doesn’t seem like much. But when it’s the separation between Navarre’s volleyball team and district championship glory, it might as well be as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Raider volleyball coach Ryan Davenport will often remind his team of the 15-9 loss to Niceville in the final game of a wild five-set thriller for the title last October.
