Wellington football on the rise? Sophomores lead Seminole Ridge rout

WESTLAKE — The young Wolverines are growing up fast.

Wellington High's football team stumbled to a 3-7 record last year, capped off by a frustrating one-point loss to Seminole Ridge, but coach Pete Walker was laying a foundation.

Now, in his second season, Walker's underclassmen are among the best in Palm Beach County. 

Sophomores accounted all five touchdowns as the Wolverines rolled to a 35-8 victory over Seminole Ridge in a non-district game on Aug. 28, avenging last year's loss and improving to 2-0 on the young season.  

"They are young," Walker said after the game. "Last year, we started a lot of freshmen, and now they are a year older and they put in year-round training."

Two players who made their mark as freshmen showed how much they had elevated their games against the Hawks. 

Running back Jay'Lan Tyler, the second-leading rusher in 2025, carried 12 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns. 

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Wide receiver Tarrens Catul, who already holds offers from Notre Dame, Miami and other Division I powers, caught four passes for 59 yards and a TD. Catul's night included a highlight-reel 24-yard reception between two defenders.

With quarterback Jonathan Paul lost to graduation, Walker now has two sophomores, Makhi Price and Alanda Shaw, sharing the job. Price played the first half, passing for 109 yards and a touchdown. Shaw took over in the second half, weaving his way 23 yards for a touchdown and throwing a 42-yard scoring pass to yet another sophomore, Je'Relle Pierre.

"We wanted to come into the game and throw early, because we felt like we were going to get control of the game," Walker said. "It didn't turn out the way we wanted it to." 

The Wolverines led 14-0 at halftime, but it could have been much worse. Turnovers stopped two drives in the red zone and a penalty nullified Deandre King's punt return for a touchdown.

Seminole Ridge (0-2) appeared to seize the momentum when it took the second-half kickoff and used a power running game to eat up more than seven minutes. Elijah Smith ran 2 yards for a touchdown and Tristan Kennedy threw a two-point conversion pass to Jayven Albert to make it 14-8.

But Wellington responded quickly by running the ball five consecutive times, with Tyler scoring from 18 yards.

"I just wanted to get the ground game going," Walker said of the change in strategy. "The guys were blocking well. We need to be a balanced football team."

Walker, a veteran coach who won three state championships at Glades Day and also led programs at Clewiston and King's Academy, had a measured response when asked about his team's progress.

"We've got a long ways to go," he said. "We're a better football team than we were a year ago. How good? We'll find out. We've got some tough football games ahead.

"Right now we're 2-0 and we'll focus on going 3-0."

The Hawks, meanwhile, are going in the opposite direction, but first-year coach Eric Poyner said he saw some encouraging signs after a lopsided loss to Palm Beach Lakes to open the season. 

"We've got a very young team that is getting better," Poyner said. "They're working hard every day and it's starting to show. ... You look at it from the Kickoff Classic in Week 1 to last week against Lakes to this week against Wellington, we've gotten better every single week.

"As long as we do that, it's going to click. Hopefully it clicks next week." 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Wellington football on the rise? Sophomores lead Seminole Ridge rout

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