Celebration, in Rich Pringle’s debut on the Storm sideline, ripped open a 21-16 game at the half with four fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat St. Cloud, 46-30, for its first-ever gridiron win over the Bulldogs.
The Storm and Gateway open the season Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at John Bushey Stadium. The Panthers’ preseason game against Lake Buena Vista was wiped out by COVID-19 protocols.
“It was simply a matter of moving the game or cancelling it,” Panther head coach Marlin Roberts said. “We have a dozen kids who will not be eligible to practice until Wednesday. Fortunately, the Storm agreed to move this game so it could happen.”
Dylan Davis debuted as CHS quarterback and 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. 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 242 rushing yards on 42 carries.
"We knew what we have in Oniel. We weren't sure what Dylan would do," Pringle said. "We changed some of our defensive stuff this week, and had some other starters sit out the first quarter, so we started slow. We saw some success out there."
Harmony hosts Mt. Dora Friday after an impressive 24-7 win over Freedom in their Classic, where junior running back Tyler Emans rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns on just eight carries and Cooper Richards ran for 85 yards on nineteen carries. Harmony averaged seven yards per play.
“We were good, “Coach Don Simon said. “Most pleasing is we did what we wanted to do on offense but other than our opening drive, our defense played really well too. We made some huge fourth down stops in the game.”
Poinciana is off this week after beating Cypress Creek, 21-3, last. Although head coach Randy Beeken has some optimism heading into this year, he said the game did not tell him a lot about his team.
“We had six starters who had to sit out because of some paper work issues. The first quarter was JV versus JV and when we went to varsity I pretty much had to keep the JVs in there. Hopefully we’ll get it solved because we know our next opponent (Celebration on Sept. 3) is the real deal.”
Liberty and Tohopekaliga open the season at home Friday after taking Kickoff Classic losses. The Chargers host Haines City at 7 p.m. after dropping a 27-8 decision to Davenport Ridge last week.
“The kids did some good things, but we also had mistakes like penalties that we’ll have to clean up if we’re going to compete this week,” LHS Coach Brett Munroe said. “Haines City will be coached up well and is athletic, we’ll need to play better than (last week) to have a chance.”
Tigers, who fell 35-0 at Lake Howell, will welcome Lake Minneola at 7:30 p.m.
