Running back Oneil Senatus and Quarterback Dylan Davis combined to account for seven touchdowns as the Celebration Storm recorded a 55-22 road win over Poinciana in the season opener for both teams. Thunder and lightning forced a two hour delay in kickoff time.
The 55 points scored by the Storm was the second most in school history, one short of the 56 points they scored against in 2015, which also came against Poinciana.
“Our kids came out and handled the delay well,” Storm Head Coach Rich Pringle said. “Our offense started fast and played with enthusiasm. At the end of the day, I think it was the fact that it was our first game of the season and our kids were excited to be out there.”
Senatus, a junior, had a huge game . He scored touchdowns on runs of 1, 6, 13 and a career-best and school record 94 yards. In all, he finished with 244 yards on just 18 carries, getting more than half of his team-leading season total of 486 rushing yards from a year ago.
“Our plan going in was to make Oneil our workhorse and he certainly accomplished that tonight,” Pringle said.
Davis was equally good for Celebration. He directed eight touchdown drives, completing 14 of 21 passes for 147 yards and three touchdowns. His touchdown passes included scoring strikes of 16 yards Foster Searcy, 29 yards to Griffin Davis and two yards to Chip McQuiston.
Although the Storm never trailed, the game was relatively close until late in the second quarter. CHS (1-0) jumped on top early, driving the length of the field on their first drive as Senatus tore up big chunks of yardage on runs of 28 and 12 yards before scoring on a fourth and goal from the one play to make it 7-0.
Two possessions later, Davis would cap a 9-play, 60-yard drive with a 3-yard run – again on fourth down – to make it 14-0.
Poinciana got back in the game midway through the second quarter when Deshawn Wimberley won a jump ball on a deep pass from Jahmari Corbett and raced 67 yards for a touchdown. Corbett would then hit Andrew Peters on the two-point conversion to make it 14-8.
But Celebration would go up by two scores right before half. The Storm defense strip-sacked Corbett, recovering the fumble on the Eagle 21-yard line. Davis found Searcy in the end zone from 16-yards out for a 21-8 lead.
The Storm would put the game away in the third. Poinciana failed to convert on a fourth and five from their own 38 and Senatus finished five-play drive with his second touchdown run of the game from. A 20-yard pass from Davis to McQuiston on third down kept that series going.
The Storm defense would then force and recover a fumble deep in Poinciana territory on the next series – with Senatus again finishing the drive from 13 yards out to make it 35-8.
Celebration’s defense made several big plays in the contest, forcing six turnovers in the game and holding on downs three times.
Still, Randy Beeken’s squad did some good things on offense. In addition to Wimberley’s long touchdown reception, Andrew Peters set up a short touchdown run by Corbett with a 45-yard run on a reverse and Wimberley also scored a touchdown on a 25-yard run. For the game, Corbett finished 8-of-20 for 147 yards and one interception to go with one touchdown. Peters had four catches for 97 yards and Wimberley had more than 250 all-purpose yards.
“It was a tough situation with the lightning delay,” Beeken said. “I really think our guys had a tough time refocusing. But that’s no excuse, Celebration had to do the same thing. On the bright side, our kids did not quit and gave us effort the entire game. We’re a really young team and had five or six freshman starters out there. The big thing is we way gave up way too many big plays to have a chance to win. If we can clean up those mistakes moving forward, we will see improvement.”
Poinciana (0-1) returns to action next Friday against Mulberry; while Celebration (1-0) has a scheduled bye; although Athletic Director Richard Tribit said the school was scrambling to find a possible opponent to replace last week’s Gateway game that was cancelled due to COVID-19 tracing.
