CAPE CORAL — When Toby Noland entered Ida Baker High School’s spring football game Friday night against Barron Collier, even his coaches considered him a mystery.
All they knew was that the incoming junior quarterback, who had led the Bulldogs JV team to a 6-1 record last season, had a good reputation under center.
But they wondered, like any staff would of a young player, whether he would transition well enough to the varsity game.
“Sometimes physically and the Friday Night Lights come on, it’s two different things,” Ida Baker coach Brian Conn said.
Their answers came as early as the first series, when Noland dished out a perfectly placed pass to Luke Endsley for a 78-yard score. He left the game 12-for-22 for 264 yards and three touchdowns, capping off a 39-27 win for the Bulldogs.
And it was an incomplete pass, which saw Noland tracking to his left and throwing off his back foot, that Conn and his staff left enamored by.
It was dropped in the end zone despite being touched in the back left corner of the end zone, outside of the defender’s reach.
“We all kind of looked at each other,” Conn said, “and were like, ‘That’s a heck of a throw.'”
Endsley caught seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, running backs James Stewart and Shomari Mason added 95 yards rushing and the defense recovered two fumbles and intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter.
“He throws the ball well with touch,” Conn said of his quarterback.
The Cougars, who defeated the Bulldogs last year in the same game, did show promise over certain stretches, too, finishing off their last drive with less than two minutes to play with an 11-play, 80-yard series for a score.
Junior Jack Bueltel, who played just three series at quarterback after limited practice — he had been a standout baseball player on the Cougars’ Class 6A semifinal team — went 7 for 9 for 80 yards and found a streaking Dana Brown in the right corner of the end zone as time expired.
The Cougars also saw Brown, who finished with eight carries for 71 yards, add a blazing 95 yard kickoff return for a touchdown that cut Ida Baker’s lead in the second quarter to 13 points.
Yet Friday was all about the Bulldogs, who opened up the game with a 20-0 lead.
Following Noland’s 78-yard pass to Endsley to open up the scoring, they scored on a 4-play, 36 yard series and then added a 15-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown just one series later.
“You want to win, you want to play your best, but in reality we have some things we have to work on,” Barron Collier head coach Mark Jackson said.
Noland added touchdown passes to Corey Friar in the third quarter and another to Endsley in the fourth, pushing the score to 39-20.
The Cougars lost two fumbles on the game and were intercepted in the fourth.
“No excuses,” Jackson said. “They played better than we played. I’m fine with that. Guys have to step up.”
Sophomore Jacob Kuhlman started the game from under center for Barron Collier and went 8 of 14 for 37 yards. He completed eight of his first 10 passes but then failed to connect on his last four.
“Jacob is a tough kid,” Jackson said. “He’ll be all right. He filled in nicely for Jack.”
IDA BAKER 39, BARRON COLLIER 27
BC 0 14 6 7 — 27
Ida Baker 20 7 6 6 — 39
First quarter
IB – Endsley 78 pass from Noland (kick failed)
IB – Endsley 4 run (Jacobs kick)
IB – Stilson 15 fumble recovery (Amaral kick)
Second quarter
BC – Harder 2 pass from Kuhlman (conversion failed)
BC – Brown 95 kickoff return (Satizabal run)
IB – Stewart 3 run (Friar kick)
Third quarter
IB – Friar 20 pass from Noland (kick failed)
BC – Satizabal 1 run (conversion failed)
Fourth quarter
IB – Endsley 16 pass from Noland (kick failed)
BC – Brown 15 pass from Bueltel (no kick)
