After scoring 55 points against Poinciana, the second most in school history, Celebration has found a Friday opponent.
The Storm, a 55-22 winner over Poinciana, had their scheduled season opener a week earlier against Gateway cancelled due to Covid tracing issues. In what was supposed to be a bye week ahead of a huge district matchup against Dr. Phillips, the Storm will host Lake Region Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Poinciana (0-1) heads to Mulberry (1-1) on Friday. Eagles head coach Randy Beeken says his team will hopefully get a good week of practice in; something they failed to do last week.
“Last week was sort of a disaster practice wise,” Beeken said. “My offensive coordinator wasn’t cleared to return to the field until midweek and we were forced inside three days because of heat issues. Frankly, we just made too many mistakes that we will have to clean up this week.”
St. Cloud (7-6 over Aklynn’s Angels Academy), Harmony (17- 14 over Heritage) and Tohopekaliga (14-10 over Gateway) have games scheduled and look for a two-game win streak.
For the Bulldogs (1-0), Isaac Nieves scored the lone touchdown and Wyatt Castellucci booted what turned out to be the gamewinning PAT in the first half. Coach Bryan Smart said his defense played a great game as Ryan Clancy, Matt Clukey and Noah Carr were all outstanding.
“We were without three starting offensive linemen, that made things a little difficult for us, but we still weren’t very good on offense,” he said. “Twice we were inside the opponent’s 10-yard line and walked away with zero points. We really need one of our quarterbacks to step up and take control of this team. On the other hand our defense really played well. We gave up one big play that they scored off of and other than that, they totally shut our opponents down. It was a great effort.”
St. Cloud hosts Sebastian River (0-1) Friday at 7 p.m. “They are big and well coached and have a pretty good quarterback,” Smart said. “We need to play a lot better on offense this week to have a chance.”
Harmony Coach Don Simon had to watch on live stream as Kevin Lavigne booted a 37-year field goal as time expired to give the Longhorns (1-0) a 17-14 win. Simon had tested positive for Covid earlier in this week and was in quarantine as his assistants ran the team.
Tyler Emans rushed for 147 yards and scored both touchdowns as Harmony had to rally from a 14-7 halftime deficit. Getting the ball back with just a few minutes remaining, Lavigne missed a 52-yard field goal with 10 seconds left, but a roughing call gave him another shot from 37 yards out.
“I am so proud of our players and assistant coaches,” Simon said. “We knew Heritage was a very solid, athletic team and it was going to be a dogfight. We kept our composure and got the ball back with a chance to win the game and were able to get that done.”
Things will not get any easier for the Longhorns this week as they travel to Palm Bay (1-0) Friday for a 7 p.m. game. “They put up a lot of points last week and are pretty athletic,” Simon, who is expected back at practice this week, said. “We are going to have to try to run the ball and control the clock on them.”
Tohopekaliga was the redemption story of the week, taking a 14-10 win over Gateway. The Tigers (1-1), a week after getting blown out by Lake Minneola, made a pair of 6-yard touchdown runs by Kam Davis-Roberts hold up.
“The kids played hard and they knew they had to get better after last week,” THS Coach Jeff Higgins said. “It’s not where we want to be, it’s not about today, but tonight our score was the higher one.”
The Tigers’ task gets hard again Friday, when they welcome Osceola.
“That’s how it is when you play Class 8A ball,” Higgins said. “We’ll have to rise to the challenge.
The Kowboys lost a 21- 20 heartbreaker at Cocoa, the third ranked team in Class 4A.
Several second half turnovers and a blocked extra point made the difference. “They got a pretty good push up the middle,” Coach Eric Pinellas said of the blocked PAT. “The kick was a line drive and a big guy got his hand up and blocked it.”
Osceola fell behind 14-0 before rallying for a Chad Mascoe touchdown pass and a Ja’Randy Swint touchdown run in the third quarter made it 14- 13. O.J. Ross’ third rushing touchdown gave Cocoa a 21-13 lead, but Bo Mascoe returned the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a score to cut the gap to 21-20. The Kowboys would get the ball back in the final minutes but the potential gamewinning drive stalled.
Gateway got a 19-yard touchdown run from Ishmael Sesay in its first time on the field in 2021, and in the fourth quarter LaQuavious Pinellas intercepted a pass, and Elijah Simmons recovered a fumble. But the Tiger defense bowed up and kept the Panthers from getting a go-ahead score.
The Panthers played heavy-hearted; lineman Thomas Stephens was in the hospital after getting hit by a car Thursday night.
“Admin was going to cancel the game, but the kids wanted to play for him and frankly we needed to get on the field,” Coach Marlin Roberts said. “That, first time on the field, 90-minute lightning delay, it was just a tough night.”
Friday, the Panthers host Liberty (0-1), who did not play St. Cloud as scheduled because of COVID-19 cases and contact tracing within the Charger program. LHS Coach Bret Munroe was at the Gateway game to study his next opponent.
“Liberty’s similar to Toho,” Roberts said. “They’ve got a mobile quarterback (Jeremiah Pierre-Louis) we’ll have to contain. It’s going to be another tough game.”
