A roundup of Manatee and Sarasota area high school football games for Week 8 on Thursday, Oct. 8 and Friday, Oct. 9.
THURSDAY
Seffner Christian 13, Out-of-Door 12
SEFFNER – A slow start, a failed two-point conversion and a very wet night in Tampa ended
Out-of-Door Academy’s hopes for a third undefeated regular season in five years.
Jaxon Lawhun’s 17-yard pass to Beau Tack brought the Thunder to within a single point in the final four minutes, but his two-point pass was picked off in the end zone, allowing Seffner Christian (8-0) to escape with a 13-12 victory in a late-season battle between two of the state’s best Sunshine State Athletic Association teams.
“We’ve had one-score games the last three times we’ve played these guys,” said ODA coach Rob Hollway. “They’re 8-0 for a reason. We just didn’t play good enough to win.”
The Thunder (7-1), ranked No. 7 in the Herald-Tribune’s Super 10, had been the last remaining unbeaten team in the SSAA’s 18-team South Division.
But they found themselves facing a 10-0 deficit in a steady rain after Zack McKeehan’s 28-yard field goal with 4:31 remaining in the first half and a 19-yard touchdown run by sophomore Isaiah Balthazar, following the Crusaders’ recovery of a live-ball, line-drive pooch kickoff – which normally would have bounced out of bounds – at ODA’s 19.
“We saw the radar, so we knew it was going to be a wet one,” Lawhun said. “We prepped this week, threw with wet balls … everybody working on ball security just preparing for the wet game.”
The Thunder had outscored its first seven opponents 303-55, but were missing several key players, including two-way performers Jake Beasley, Cam Yates, Brady Cleveland, Michael Garzia and Trevor Kovatch. And there was that rain.
“We’ve got some pretty good receivers, and it limited us getting the ball to the perimeter,” Hollway said. “The weather mucked it up. I mean, we’re scoring 43 points a game and we get 12 tonight. But hat’s off to Seffner Christian. They beat us.”
Senior quarterback Marino Cozzens (11-of-30, 170 yards, 1 INT) scrambled three times for 34 yards and completed six passes to Luke McLaughlin for 116 yards, as the Crusaders outgained ODA 234-186, despite managing only 63 total yards in the second half.
The Thunder controlled the ball for nearly 10 minutes of the opening period, but came up empty after back-to-back drives inside Seffner Christian’s 25-yard line. Lawhun (10-of-28, 138 yards, 2 TDs) wasted little time, though, after getting the ball on a fumbled kickoff to begin the second half – completing a middle screen to Devin Erdei for 7 yards on third-and-1, then hitting sophomore Dominic Reddick (five catches, 60 yards, 1 TD) in stride for a 16-yard score.
Still, ODA trailed 10-6 entering the fourth quarter – despite crossing midfield on five of seven possessions – and 13-6 after McKeehan added a 29-yard field goal with 8:12 to play.
That’s when the Thunder drove 72 yards in 10 plays, with Lawhun connecting with Tack across the middle on fourth-and-13 from the 17 with 3:54 to go. But after rolling to his right on the two-point conversion attempt, his pass to the end zone was tipped by Jasiah Bennett and picked off by fellow senior Donte Lucas.
“We’re a really good second-half team, we’re a great adjustment team,” Lawhun said. “So we went in the locker room, figured out what we had to do to move the ball, and we scored two touchdowns. We missed the two-point conversion that would’ve gotten us the game, but bad plays happen.”
ODA got one more chance 10 seconds later when Reddick recovered a fumble at Seffner’s 38. But the offense stalled on downs at the 25.
Except for film study, Hollway gave his team four days off – with a 15-day break before the Thunder’s regular-season finale against Fort Myers Canterbury on Oct. 23.
“We’ve got to go perform against Canterbury to get a good seed, but we should be back to full strength,” he said. “We want to be at home in the (SSAA) playoffs.”
— Donnie Wilkie
Bradenton Christian 20, Shorecrest Prep 8
Bradenton – Despite a struggling offense, defense was the name of the game for Bradenton Christian in their final regular-season home game against Shorecrest Prep as the Panthers (6-2) defeated the Chargers (5-3) at Dan van der Kooy Field at McClure Stadium.
“I’m just so happy for our defense,” Panthers head coach Brian Palone said. “We have been preaching about turnovers, interceptions and sacks and they delivered. Everyone stepped up when our offense was struggling earlier. I’m just glad that our defense really stepped up.”
The Panthers forced four turnovers and had four sacks against the Chargers. Leading the defense was freshman Mason Masingil, who recorded a sack and two fumble recoveries, one of which he would return for a 45-yard touchdown. Additionally, he made two catches for 39 yards on offense. Junior Andrew Delgado led all receivers with 77 yards on two catches, including one touchdown while also recording one sack. Senior quarterback Holland Hume would complete 7 of his 20 passes for 196 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Bradenton Christian opened the game quickly with Delgado’s 74-yard touchdown catch, a safety and 10-yard touchdown run by freshman Cohen Fuller. After Masingil scored on the fumble recovery, the Chargers eventually got on the board with a touchdown pass, but that was all they could produce in the Panthers’ win.
The Panthers will travel to Foundation Christian Academy (5-2) on Oct. 14 before finishing the regular season at The Classical Academy of Sarasota (4-2) on Oct. 23.
— Patrick Clines
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Week 8 Football: ODA drops battle of unbeatens, Bradenton Christian wins
