ECSO: Burglar Caught In The Act
October 30, 2023
A 19- year old Pace man has been charged with multiple burglaries in Escambia County.
Joseph McGee is in Escambia County Jail is charged with four counts of burglaryy, larceny damaging property burglary – tools possession and drug possession
He was arrested early Sunday after the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office reponded to a burglary in progress on Mirabelle Circle.
Deputies arrived to find mcGee hiding behind a vehilce in a driveway. As deputies approached, he took off running but was soon captured in a backyard. Deputies discovered methamphetamine and blank business checks believed to have been stolen in his pockets.
When deputies returned to the residence they saw that a hatchet was jammed in the storm door in an attempt to pry it open. Additionally, deputies collected a machete and an open pocket knife near where the burglar initially tried to hide, the ECSO said.
McGee was charged with two residential burglaries and a vehicle burglary. He is believed to be a suspect in other burglaries from in Santa Rosa County
Charles Izelle Bailey
October 30, 2023
Charles Izelle Bailey resident of Pensacola, Florida passed away on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at the age of 64. He was born in Atmore, Alabama on August 2, 1959 to the late Marion B. Bailey and Eunice Hall Bailey. Charles was an automotive painter by trade and worked for Coastal Paint and Body.
He enjoyed fishing, hunting, and camping with friends.
He is preceded in death by his parents; maternal grandparents, Leslie and Lottie Hall; paternal grandparents, Izelle and Ruth Bailey; and numerous other loved ones.
Charles is survived by son, John Alec Bailey (Tara); granddaughter, Arianna Mollie Jane Day of Pensacola, Florida; sister, Judy (Carl) Daley of DeFuniak Springs, Florida; brother, Randy (Melodie) Bailey of Travelers Rest, South Carolina; and numerous nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 20, 2023 at Victory Assembly of God with Pastor Jeff McKee officiating. Burial will follow in Bay Springs Full Gospel Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. prior to services. Pallbearers will be Jason A. Lamb, P. Lamar Lamb, Jacob D. Bailey, Justin A. Cruce, Zackery X. Lamb, and O. Wendall Hall.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North, 1000 South Highway 29, Cantonment, is entrusted with
arrangements.
Jacquelyn Daniel Presley
October 30, 2023
Jacquelyn Daniel Presley (Jackie), beloved mother, grandmother, sister and friend passed away peacefully October 16, 2023, at the age of 90 in her home community of Nokomis, Alabama.
Jackie grew up in Nokomis, Ala., attended Perdido Elementary and Perdido Junior High and Escambia County High School. She graduated from Mobile Infirmary School of Nursing with her RN degree. She was employed with Greenlawn Hospital, now known as
Atmore Community Hospital, for 42 years. Her hobbies included gardening, fishing, cooking, baking, being active in her church, watching Alabama football and spoiling her grandchildren. She was well known in her community for her cooking, especially her
cheese straws.
Jackie is preceded in death by her parents Perlie Edward and Leona Jeter Daniel; her husband James Ollie Presley, Jr.; son, Edward Allen Presley (Eddie), daughter-in-law Debra Presley; grandson Troy Allen Presley; great-granddaughter Gabriella Casey;
brother Joe Edward Daniel (Sue); and sisters Geraldine Williams (Frank) and Edro Hall (Ray).
Jackie (known as Jack to her family) is survived by her children Laura Presley Smith (Don) and Mark Daniel Presley; six grandchildren: Allison Presley Wynn (Guy), Anna Presley, Stephanie Roberts Maddox (Walt), Eric Roberts (Morgan), and Kelley Presley
Cotton; fifteen great-grandchildren: Troy Edward Presley; Cole, Cameron, Chasen, Ciera and Ceanna Wynn; Jacklyn Ash; Taylor and Eli Maddox; Christian and Peyton Roberts; Easton, Weston and Oaklynn Cotton; great-great-grandchild Kinsley Wynn;
sister Fredna Daniel Stewart; and special niece Martha Hall.
Visitation will be at 10 o’clock on Friday, October 20th followed by the funeral service at 11 o’clock, led by Bro. Dennis Daniels at Nokomis Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Nokomis Baptist Church cemetery.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Cold Front Sending Overnight Lows Into the 30s This Week
October 29, 2023
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 49. North wind around 10 mph.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 60. North wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35. North wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 57. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 33. North wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 64. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 39. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 72. Northeast wind around 10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 48. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 76.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 79.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 53.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 80.
Ice Flyers Towering Goaltender Makes Memorable Debut In Team’s OT Win
October 29, 2023
By Bill Vilona
Ice Flyers Correspondent
Earlier this month, Ice Flyers fans were informed about the likelihood of a 6-foot-8 goaltender making his debut at the Pensacola Bay Center.
Well, Stephen Mundinger’s first professional win Saturday certainly became memorable.
Mundinger, who waited last season for an opportunity that never happened, stopped all five shots in overtime as the Ice Flyers won a crowd-thrilling 3-2 win against the Huntsville Havoc and gaining a split of the teams’ home-and-home dual games this weekend.
“It was awesome,” said Mundinger, who played at the University of Maine, one of the nation’s top collegiate hockey programs. “Definitely has been a long time coming. I was happy to do it in front of these awesome fans here. And my teammates were great in front of me to make it very easy.
“They were dominating, so it was nice to have a shootout be the first one (win).”
Mundinger, 26, a Smithtown, New York native, actually celebrated twice Saturday. After stoning the Havoc’s fourth shooter, Doug Elgstram, who produced a hat trick in Friday’s 5-2 Huntsville win and the first goal Saturday, Mundinger reacted as if he had won the game.
So did the Ice Flyers teammates and the game announcer, causing a brief celebration as fans began exit.
Oops, hold on. Overtime shootouts are five shooters. So, the Ice Flyers, fifth shooter, Dante Zapata took his turn and was stopped. Then the Havoc’s Carter Cowlthorp was thwarted by Mundinger who this time was embraced in victory.
“It was a roller-coaster of emotions there,” said Mundinger, laughing. “I definitely got all hyped up there. But I had to focus back in. And what’s better than two (celebrations)?”
The Ice Flyers Brett Mecrones, who made his pro debut a week earlier in the Ice Flyers’ season-opening win, was the only goal-scorer in the shooter. He got a wrist shot past Huntsville’s Brian Wilson before all the drama ensued.
The win was gratifying for the Ice Flyers on a number of elements. They again fell behind 2-0 in their building in a quick set of second-period goals. They tied the game in the same period.
In the third period, they had a pair of power play chances and couldn’t get go-ahead goal. In the final 22 seconds of regulation play, three different Ice Flyers players had good shots that got stopped.
“It was exciting,” said Ice Flyers coach Gary Graham, whose team is now 2-1 after its first back-to-back games with travel involved. “Last week we got down 2-0 in our big home opener and showed resiliency and again you see it from the group (Saturday).
“The guys just stuck with it.”
After a scoreless first period, the teams combined on a four-goal flurry within an eight-minute span in the second period.
The Havoc took a 2-0 lead on goals only 63 seconds apart. The first was on a breakaway against Mundinger when Elgstram made a deke move and slipped a shot under a sprawling Mundinger. The second one came on a 2-on-1 and perfect pass that Brandon Osmundson buried.
“Boy is that an opportunistic Huntsville team,” Graham said. “I mean, we weren’t giving them much of anything and then, boom-boom!, all of sudden you are down 2-0. It was like were scratching and clawing and doing so much good stuff and before you know it, you’re blinking.”
The Ice Flyers then got the crowd energized when Ivan Bondarenko poked in a shot amid a scramble in the crease area with 12:14 left in the period.
Five minutes later, the Ice Flyers crashed the net with several players. The puck came lose and Dallas Comeau flicked it off his stick into the net, tying the game.
“We knew the only way you’re going to beat Huntsville is you got to win in the trenches,” Graham said. “You have to get in ugly, dirty areas, because those guys are so good defensively and they’ve shown that in the first three games they won.
“We talked about it, saying it can’t be about pretty plays, it can’t be about the perimeter, we got to get the nuts and bolts areas and we did a good job of it.”
Mundinger played four seasons for the Maine Bears, a 50-year history that includes two NCAA Division I national titles and eight appearances in the “Frozen Four” the major college hockey version of the Final Four.
His goaltender teammate was Jeremy Swayman, now in his fourth year with the Boston Bruins. Mundinger a year ago was in two ECHL camps and hoping for an opportunity, but it didn’t happen, so he sat out the entire season.
“He’s one of those rare gems,” Graham said. “He went to Cincinnati’s camp last year, didn’t make the team, decided not to go to an SPHL team. He thought he would be an ECHL goalie – he’s got a real good goalie coach– and that happens to a lot of guys coming out of college.
“So he chose to work with his goalie coach in Long Island and waiting for an ECHL team to call and never got a phone call.”
Earlier this month, Mundinger was back in Cincinnati’s camp, plays an exhibition game and he comes to us to develop and that’s what he is here to do.”
“So that was his first pro win (Saturday). He’s going to remember that one.”
For sure.
The game also included the Ice Flyers promotion as the “Small Dog Fright Night” with races between each period.
There was also post-game trick-or-treating with costumed fans on the upper concourse and autographs with Ice Flyers players.
Florida Gas Prices Declining Again, AAA Says
October 29, 2023
Florida gas prices increased last week, but are moving lower once again. After tying the 2023-low of $3.22 per gallon last Monday, the state average shot up 10 cents to $3.32 per gallon, by Wednesday. The increase was in response to the rise in crude oil prices, which occurred two weeks ago.
Pensacola was the state’s least expensive metro market at $3.06 per gallon on average Sunday. In North Escambia, prices bottomed out at $2.89 at a a station on Highway 29 in Cantonment. A low of $2.84 was available in Pensacola on East Nine Mile Road.
Fortunately, crude oil prices fell last week, and gas prices are doing the same. Florida’s state average declined 4 cents per gallon, Friday-Sunday. The state average was $3.29 per gallon on Sunday. Visit GasPrices.AAA.com to view today’s daily average price.
The U.S. price of crude settled at $85.54 per barrel. That’s down $3.21 per barrel (-4%) from the week before. Gasoline futures declined 6 cents.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
Late TD Gives No. 24 Valdosta State 31-28 Win Over No. 18 UWF
October 29, 2023
Never was the old axiom about winning everywhere but on the scoreboard more apparent than in No. 18 UWF’s heartbreaking 31-28 loss to Gulf South Conference rival No. 24 Valdosta State Saturday night.
By most measures, the Argos (6-3, 4-2 GSC) outperformed the Blazers (8-1, 5-1 GSC). Yet, in the final tally, both on the scoreboard and in the GSC standings, Valdosta State came out on top.
UWF held the Blazers to minus-3 yards rushing and 272 yards of total offense while racking up 444 yards of offense (248 rushing and 196 passing), but a series of miscues – a fumble inside their own 5, a pair of missed kicks, a handful of passes that were ever so slightly out of rhythm, a key missed fourth-down conversion, and a few defensive hiccups – added up to three points too few.
“We’ve got to clean up mistakes,” head coach Kaleb Nobles said. “I’m looking at the stats and we won a lot of stats and did some good things, but there are no moral victories. Our guys have got to know. We’ve got to execute on third downs better. We’ve got to get them off the field better. On defense, we can’t give up drive-extending plays, and we’ve got to be better on special teams.”
Early in the contest, the Argos seemed poised to run away with the game. They quickly went ahead with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Peewee Jarrett to John Jiles on UWF’s first drive and followed with a 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a Jamontez Woods 1-yard run and a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.
It was the first of two rushing touchdowns on the night for UWF as three players – Jarrett (120 yards), Woods (51), and CJ Wilson (70) – paced a strong ground attack.
Unfortunately, a second-quarter fumble on the UWF 3 resulted in a scoop-and-score for the Blazers and turned the game’s momentum.
“Those guys did a great job,” Nobles said. “I told the guys earlier in the week I wanted to run the football. We had good chances to run the ball. Peewee’s one of our best guys running the football. I gave him a lot of carries and he wants to do that. Best quarterback in the country in my opinion. He’s going to throw the ball well. He’s going to run the ball well.”
Nobles added, “I know everybody is going to focus on the fumble that flipped the momentum, but we are not in that game without CJ, Jamontez, Peewee, Jalen Bussey, those guys.”
In reality, the Argos shook off the fumble reasonably well. Indeed, after Valdosta State tied the game at 14, Jarrett connected with Jiles on a 33-yard pass to push to put UWF up 21-14.
The game would enter the break tied, though, after Blazers quarterback Sammy Edwards scored on a 6-yard run to cap a late-second-quarter drive that covered 77 yards.
Valdosta State didn’t hold a lead in the game until the 0:36 mark in the fourth quarter when Edwards connected on a 28-yard touchdown pass with Ted Hurst.
Jarrett guided the Argos to within field goal range with 1 second to play, but a 51-yard attempt by Griffin Cerra went wide right.
“Unfortunately, kicking is the toughest job on the team … because everybody’s watching you and everybody knows when you mess up,” Nobles said. “You can get covered up at other positions. Griff is going to know, because I am going to tell him enough this week, ‘Hey, it doesn’t change anything. You are our guy. You are the guy I trust, and you are the person we are going to put out there to go make plays … We trust Griff and we know he’s going to help us win games down the stretch.”
POSITIVE TAKEAWAYS NOT HARD TO FIND
Despite the disappointing outcome, there were plenty of positives for the Argos.
The defense, under first-year coordinator Kavell Conner, continued to impress, holding the Blazers to abysmal rushing numbers while keeping Edwards under duress most of the contest.
All told, the Argos sacked Edwards five times and registered seven quarterback hurries.
Junior defensive end Byron Puryear was a constant presence in the VSU backfield and ended the game with two-and-a-half sacks and four hurries to go along with six tackles.
“Get to the quarterback, that’s my job,” Puryear said. “Especially on third down. They brought me here to pass rush and that’s what I was trying to do.”
Senior linebacker Gael Laurent was the team leader in tackles with eight. Defensive tackles John McMullen (1½ sacks) Collin Shaw (1) accounted for the other tackles-for-loss on the Blazer quarterback.
Offensively, Jiles continued to rack up yards and touchdowns. His five receptions for 92 yards and two scores was a team-best and bumped his season tally to 49 catches for 1,017 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Senior wide receiver Caden Leggett was again solid, hauling in three passes for 50 yards.
STILL MUCH TO PLAY FOR
After the game, Argos players and coaches expressed a mixture of emotions – frustration about a game that slipped away, but also optimism for a season in which a postseason berth is still within reach, although no longer a given.
“We literally don’t know what the future holds for the playoffs, so the best thing you can really do is win out,” Jarrett said. “If you win out, you put the ball in the NCAA’s hands.”
Puryear added, “We’ve still got to play two games for the rest of the season. Nobody is going to quit on each other. We are just going to try to win out and see what it holds.”
For UWF, whatever the future holds will be decided on what the Argos do on the road next week against Mississippi College, where a 2 p.m. Saturday showdown with the 3-5 Choctaws awaits.
Although he said he wanted his team to let the loss “sting”, Nobles stressed that the team putting the Blazers in their rearview mirror quickly would be key as would maintaining the strong character they’ve displayed all season.
“Coaching in the good moments is easy, but coaching in these moments is when you really find out who you are as coaches and as men,” Nobles said. “I told those guys, don’t lose your belief. Don’t lose the heart that you’ve got. Don’t change who you are just because we lose a game. We’ve still got a chance.”
UWF returns home on Nov. 11 for the regular-season finale, a Senior Day contest against Chowan.
by UWF/photo Emily Miller/UWF
Man Found Shot to Death On Century Sidewalk Early Sunday Morning
October 29, 2023
A man was found shot to death early Sunday morning in Century. The man was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on a sidewalk along North Century Boulevard, near Ramar Street about 1:15 a.m.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident as a homicide, and there were no suspects immediately known. Additional details were not available as the investigation continued.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident as a homicide. Anyone with information is asked to call the ECSO at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Century Blackcat Youth Basketball Registration is Now Open
October 29, 2023
Registration is now open for Century Blackcat Youth Basketball
- Age groups: Pre-Training – Boys and Girls – 5-6 year old
- Training - Boys and Girls – 7-8 year old
- Junior Varsity – Boys – 9-10 year old
- Junior Varsity – Girls – 9-10 year old
- Varsity – Boys – 11-13 year old
- Varsity – Girls – 11-13 year old
Rgister at Centuryrec.com, Registration closes November 8, ,2023.
File photo, click to enlarge.
Ashton Brosnaham Dog Park Closed Through November 5 Due To SEC Soccer Tourney
October 28, 2023
The dog park at the Ashton Brosnaham Athletic Park, 10370 Ashton Brosnaham Dr., will be closed during the SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament, Oct. 29 to Nov. 5. The dog park will re-open Monday, Nov. 6.
Residents with dogs are encouraged to visit the Beulah Regional Park, located at 7820 Mobile Highway; Regency Park, located at 8245 Fathom Road; or Santa Maria Plaza, located at 199 Madrid Road.