On a rough weather night for high school football in Northeast Florida, St. Johns County may have received the worst of it.
Four games in the country were canceled. But after waiting through an hour delay after heavy rain and lightning moved through the area this past Friday night, Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) and Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) kicked off.
The Crusaders are glad they did.
Bishop Kenny (3-0) scored three touchdowns in a span of nine minutes in the third quartar to get to a running clock and the Crusaders stayed unbeaten with a 35-6 romp over Tocoi Creek (2-1) on the Toros homefield.
The first half was pretty sloppy as it was played in a steady, sometimes heavy rain.
The weather didn’t affect Bishop Kenny however, and the Crusaders (3-0) went right down the field on the opening drive. Sophomore running back Caleb Mattison carried the load on the drive, which was all running plays.
Mattison capped the drive with a 14-yard run to paydirt and Bishop Kenny took a 7-0 lead with 6:55 left in the first quarter.
The rest of the half was mostly a defensive battle. Bishop Kenny’s senior quarterback Derek Heideman fumbled a snap late in the opening period with Tocoi Creek recovering at the Crusaders 33-yard line.
But as they did most of the game, Bishop Kenny’s defense held the Toros (2-1) to a four-and-out possession.
Penalties also bogged down a couple of Bishop Kenny drives in the second period. Finally after a short punt by Tocoi Creek, Bishop Kenny took over near midfield with 30 seconds left and two plays later were in the end zone. Mattison rushed for 40 yards to the 11-yard line, and on the final play of the half, Heideman found JP Donovan on an 11-yard fade in the right corner of the end zone for a 14-0 Crusaders lead.
“I don’t want to use the weather as an excuse,” Bishop Kenny coach Tim Krause told Molly McDonald of 92.5 FM in Jacksonville. “The first half wasn’t what I expected, and we weren’t very focused in the first 24 minutes.”
The rain stopped at halftime, and Bishop Kenny came out in the second half and quickly put the game away. After the Crusaders forced a three-and-out from Tocoi Creek on the opening drive of the third quarter, Bishop Kenny quickly got back in the end zone on a 45-yard run to pay dirt by Mattison and a 21-0 lead.
Three minutes later, junior running back Jelani Dawkins ran 52 yards to the end zone as he tiptoed down the right sideline to extend the Bishop Kenny lead to 28-0.
Finally, Heideman scored from 27 yards out on the next Crusaders possession to make it a 35-0 Bishop Kenny lead and a running clock for the entirety of the fourth quarter.
Tocoi Creek did get on the board in the fourth quarter on a one-yard run by senior quarterback Ryan Kilmer.
“I thought we came out in the second half with a lot of resolve and were definitely ready to go,” Krause said to 92.5 FM. “I’m just really proud of these kids and this team for how they have been playing.
Bishop Kenny’s defense, who has allowed only 23 points in the first three games, allowed Tocoi Creek only 155 total yards, 70 of those yards coming on the Toros touchdown drive against the Crusaders second-string defense in the fourth quarter.
The other four games that were canceled in St. Johns County were Bolles at St. Augustine, Menendez at Beachside, Baker County at Ponte Vedra, and Ridge Community (Davenport) at Nease.
Bishop Kenny returns home next week to host rival Bolles in a non-district game. Bolles is 1-1 after their game at St. Augustine was canceled. Tocoi Creek will travel to Clay who is 1-2 on the season.
