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Wagner leads Gators past Dolphins (Photo gallery)
BAKER – Logan Wagner threw six touchdown passes as Baker beat Gulf Breeze 54-50 in seven-on-seven competition Tuesday.
Christian Mainor was on the receiving end of four touchdown passes. Mainor caught three strikes from Wagner and a fourth from Vada Moore.
The Moore-to-Mainor strike turned out to be the game winner for the host Gators.
Chris Mixon also had a big day with two touchdown catches. Moore’s pass to Mainor was one of two touchdowns passes he threw, connecting with Mixon for the other.
Gator coach Bob Kellogg was happy to pick up the win, but with no scoreboard or officials calling the game, it was more about the growing experience as the Gators continue their summer drills.
“This is the only way we can get a true look (playing another team),” he said. “Most of your good athletes are on one side of the ball and you can’t go against the same caliber (players in practice) because they are young kids. We learned so much today.
“We had a lot of mental mistakes, a lot of missed assignments. That’s what’s good about it. You come out here and you mix some plays up, where in practice you might run the same play five times (in a row) and then all of a sudden you go to another one and they don’t screw up. And now you start switching, calling checks, and doing all of that. It was great for us. It was a great, great day for us.”
Kellogg didn’t mind his Class 1A Gators taking on a Class 3A Gulf Breeze team.
“Their bests are as good as anybody we will see all year against anybody in our district,” Kellogg said. “It gives us the reality of what we never can see. We can’t practice against ourselves, that’s the key.
“We played about five games this summer and we need to play more. That’s the whole reason, is because we will get looks (at other schemes) that we never get to see (with intra-squad practices). It’s tremendous for us.”
Kellogg pointed out that while Gulf Breeze is a larger school, the Dolphin coaching staff faces many of the same problems he has at Baker
“Chris (Dolphin coach Nemith) is just like us in that league,” Kellogg said. “He does a great job coaching those kids with what he’s got. He plays a lot of kids two ways in a big school.
“When you play the Pensacola Highs, they don’t have to do that because they are so athletic. He’s got good kids like we do, but his athletes are limited. You to do some things differently. They are going to be competitive all the time because of the job Chris does, but it’s hard for them in that league.”
The Gators were scheduled to play in a seven-on-seven tournament at Tate on Thursday.
Kellogg was excited about the Tate tournament because several smaller schools were expected to be there.
“What’s good about that one over at Tate is it’s schools like us,” he said. “Jay is going to be there, Wewa (Wewahitchka) is going to be there. It will be schools that are going to play kids both ways.
“You are going to get a realistic look against the competition you will play versus when we went down to Niceville and Choctaw and played them. You know you are mismatched there.”
Kellogg sees other advantages to playing in the seven-on-seven games.
“Kids like to compete,” he said. “I think that’s the fun part of it, they like to go against somebody else. They get tired of going against themselves all the time.
“They realize now they are getting down to the wire and they have to execute. You don’t get to do do-overs when it comes time to play. It’s competition, so it’s a big deal.”
