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Both St. Cloud and Celebration entered Friday's Kickoff Classic with question marks on its varsity team.
St. Cloud walked out of John Bushey Stadium with question marks.
Celebration romped out with at the very least periods ... and a few exclamation marks.
The Storm shrugged off a slow start and finished fast, scoring four fourth-quarter TDs, and beat the Bulldogs, 46-30, in Coach Rich Pringle's debut as CHS head coach. The Storm will have momentum going into next week's regular-season debut -- and an extra day to prep -- against Gateway. The game has been pushed back to Saturday at 7:30 at Celebration; Gateway, in COVID-19 contact tracing, had its Kickoff Classic against Lake Buena Vista canceled.
After three weeks of going at it against each other, Pringle said he challenged many of his players in Friday's game.
"We changed some of our defensive stuff this week, and had some other starters sit out the first quarter, so we started slow," he said. "I challenged guys like Ted Michel (who responded with two sacks) to respond. We saw some success out there."
Defensive end Lucca Reinehr also had two sacks and returned a fumble 18 yards for a fourth-quarter score. There was also offensive success. Tailback Oniel Senatus carried 20 times for 130 yards and three touchdowns. And thanks to Foster Searcy's 70-yard touchdown run late in the game Celebration put up a gaudy 242 rushing yards on 42 carries.
Quarterback Dylan Davis was 8-of-12 passing for 207 yards and an 81-yard touchdown toss to Chip McCuiston (six catches, 138 yards) and added a one-yard TD run in his first start behind center.
"We knew what we have in Oniel. We weren't sure what Dylan would do," Pringle said.
St. Cloud, replacing 10 offensive starters, sought offensive consistency and looked to have it early when AJ Negron took a sweep right and went 68 yards for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead. But the Bulldogs' next three possessions featured a three-and-out, muffed punt catch and another fumble, and Celebration ran 28 of the game's first 32 offensive plays.
St. Cloud did have a 16-14 lead 2:10 before halftime. A drive after Wyatt Castelluci nailed a 32-yard-field goal, Matt Clukey recovered a Storm fumble, then Logan King his Julian Nasco on a 35-yard completion. Brandon Neer followed with an eight-yard TD run. But McCuiston's big kickoff return set up Senatus for his second score, a 22-yard scamper.
Jolaney Quinones added an 85-yard kickoff return touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Quarterbacks King and Jaden Morehead combined to go 5-of-16 for 90 yards. Morehead scored on an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter.
"The kids fought hard and did some nice things, but we have a lot of work to do," said SCHS Coach Bryan Smart, with the 98th edition of the rivalry game against St. Cloud looming in a week. "I sure wish there was an extra week on the calendar right now."
