Former Soul Bowl Player Leads PHS To Memorable First City Bowl Win At Blue Wahoos Stadium 

Pensacola High’s Jarmacuz Fountain was enveloped in celebration, as he reflected upon his star role in the second First City Bowl game, sponsored by Cox Mobile, at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

The junior quarterback led the Tigers on a dramatic, 98-yard go-ahead TD drive, capped by Fountain’s 42 yard touchdown run on a fake option play with 2:29 remaining in last Friday’s game that gave PHS a 28-21 win against West Florida High.

“The first couple plays I saw (Jaguars) blitz,” Fountain said. “And the before next play, I decided that if the one guys comes again on a blitz, I’m going to pull it and I just took it to the house.

“It was amazing. The whole drive was I thinking… I got to make a play … gotta do something and that’s what I did.”

Fountain remembered his childhood days, playing in the Soul Bowl youth football event, which has annually been held in early October since the stadium opened in 2012.

“For me, it was just the same (playing at the stadium),” said Fountain, who remembered his joy playing in the Soul Bowl that matched the Southern Youth Sports Association (SYSA) Tigers against the East Pensacola Rattlers.

“I glad some of my teammates got to play here, and it was a new change for them.”

Fountain created quite a memory.

After once dazzling as a grade school kid in the Soul Bowl, here was Fountain as a PHS junior, steering a remarkable end-to-end TD drive which became the game winner.

All the more meaningful for Fountain, since he was injured in the first game of the Tigers’ 2023 season, then had to endure watching PHS go winless last year and score just 14 points all season.

Last year, I really didn’t play because I got hurt. So, for me to come back and do something like this, play quarterback, I am very proud,” Fountain said.

“What a player he is,” said Pensacola High’s first-year coach Wade McKinney. “Just really proud of this young man. He is really growing up in front of our eyes.

“I’m just super excited about him. And he’s really developing on and off the field, mentally and just being a leader. I can lean on this guy when I have to.”

What a game this became.

The Tigers took a 6-0 lead on the game’s first possession, after recovering the kickoff, then opened a 20-7 lead in the second quarter, before West Florida closed to 20-14 at halftime. The Jaguars then took the lead early in the fourth quarter, then pinned PHS at its own 2 before the dramatic drive began

The win ignited an explosion of joy from the Tigers, who swarmed each other, then celebrated with the gold-plated, game trophy, moments before the stadium went dark for the post-game fireworks show.

“Wow, man, let’s talk about the resilience of the Tigers,” said McKinney, a long-time assistant coach at several area schools, including last year at West Florida.

I’m proud of these kids, just kept fighting and fighting. There is no quit in those guys. We’ve been on the short end of a couple these kind of games so it was good to get that one.”

PHS (4-5) went 0-10 last season. That misery followed four consecutive one-win seasons. McKinney and his staff, which includes former Tate and Pine Forest head coach Ronnie Douglas, have restored pride in the tradition-rich PHS program.

Already with distinction as the first football-playing high school team in Florida, the Tigers now have a First City Bowl trophy.

“That’s nice to come down here in front of our fans and put on a show,” McKinney said. “Just a good high school ballgame. And those guys on the other side (West Florida Jaguars) did an outstanding job as well.

“They kept the ball away from us, had a great gameplan and their kids played hard,”

Beyond the game itself, however, was the setting on a crystal-clear, balmy night at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

The game was West Florida’s senior night for players, cheerleaders and band. The setting included a spectacular sunset and trick-or-treat Halloween event for kids and their parents, as part of the one-price ticket for the event that concluded with a crowd-pleasing fireworks show.

This year's game added the partnership with Cox Mobile, part of Cox Communications.

While there was an extended halftime show for both bands and to honor the senior band and cheerleader members, both teams chilled and regrouped inside the baseball clubhouses used by the Blue Wahoos and visiting Southern League teams.

It made for a unique kind of high school football experience at the bayfront ballpark.

“I thought the venue was great and everything about it was great,” said West Florida coach Harry Lees, whose Jaguars (3-6) had last-play homecoming win the week before.

“It took a little bit getting used to, having one goal post (due to all point-after and field goal attempts on the first base side with netting), but I thought the whole thing was great,” Lees said.

The game’s final moments kept the crowd riveted.

The Tigers were facing a 4^th-and-4 from their own 19 with 5:28 left when Fountain connected with Cameron Hamilton just with just enough yardage for the first down. That play changed the game.

The Tigers had seven consecutive running plays to reach inside West Florida territory with the clock running inside three minutes to play.

And then it happened.

Fountain rolled to his left, faked an option pitch, cut inside through pair of defenders and broke free before getting tackled as he crossed the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.

The Tigers then went for two and got it when star running back Ag Floyd bulled his way across the goal line plane.

But then it was West Florida’s turn. The Tigers got a big hit and stop on the kickoff to force West Florida to start from its own 19with 2:23 left. On a second-down run, quarterback Xavier Finley picked up a 20 yard gain. The Jaguars then crossed midfield. They kept breaking of big-yardage runs and reached the PHS 12 before a false start penalty began a series of negative passing plays and force the Jaguars to use their timeouts.

“If you get us in a throwing situation, we are hurting,” Lees said. “We knew that. I probably should have just kept running the option as a far as I could.”

The Tigers served notice from the game’s outset this was a different PHS team. West Florida answered with two second half touchdowns to take the lead.

“We just kept battlng and battling,” McKinney said.

The win enabled PHS to equal the number of victories the Tigers had in the last five seasons combined.

The Tigers now have a chance in their season-finale against Gulf Breeze next Friday to reach a five-win season for the first time in a decade (2014), back when the current team members were either in grade school or preschool.

“We’re just trying to build back this program,” McKinney said. “We’re trying to get back to being a playoff caliber team.”