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Knights’ speed short-circuits Devils

By Randy Lefko
Posted 9/26/18

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Knights’ speed short-circuits Devils


Posted

OAKLEAF – Clay High football coach Joshua Hoekstra went to his book of tricks to try and counter the explosive speed of the Oakleaf High offense behind tailback Keshawn King, but, in the end, speed on the ground and in the air via wideout Antonio Marshall’s acrobatics, won as the Knights pulled out a 49-31 thriller Sept. 21 at Oakleaf High School. King finished with 195 yards and three scores on the ground while Marshall had 98 yards and two scores from the air.

“Their offense is so explosive that we had to take some risks, “ said Hoekstra, who got as close as 34-31 behind two successful onsides kickoffs; one to open the second half, the other to close the third quarter, before King and the high-flying Oakleaf offense in front of quarterback Walter Simmons, Jr., countered with a 44 yard sprint touchdown to break the Clay momentum shift.

For Oakleaf coach Frank Garis, in his first year as a head coach, taking on a former boss; Hoekstra at Clay High, was enlightening at best.

“It’s not the first time coaching against him (Hoekstra), but first time as a head coach, “ said Garis, who was part of the Ponte Vedra High football program that derailed the Blue Devils in the Class 5A state semifinal two years ago in a 52-42 thriller. “I learned so much from him and he’s a great friend. It’s a huge challenge to coach against him, but we had a job to do.”

Oakleaf (3-1, 1-0 in district 3-7A) continues their monumental season turnaround from a 2-8 season last year with a record-setting 69-53 district 3-7A win over Bartram Trail, the win over Clay with another district matchup against Fleming Island on Friday. The Knights lone loss was a 32-26 setback to 4A-Glades Central in week two.

For Clay (1-4, 0-1), Hoekstra may have answered a question of readiness after last week’s disastrous 29-28 district 5-5A loss to a renewed Orange Park High team that is also responding to their 1-9 team of 2017.

“I think the Orange Park game woke us up to how good or how not so good we can be,” said Hoekstra. “I put much of the blame (Orange Park loss) on myself for some coaching decisions, but tonight we may have seen some spark for our upcoming district schedule. We needed to regroup for Menendez (second district game on Friday).”

Oakleaf, with a barrage of points against Bartram Trail last week that led to a 35-26 halftime score, was saddled in the first half by a divide and conquer defensive strategy, with defensive tackle Ty Summerford’s number 57 seemingly always around King, that limited the space King had to operate in while securing the ball on offense to keep King on the sideline as Oakleaf got just a pass touchdown to wideout Antonio Marshall to hold a slim 7-0 lead after the first quarter.

Clay ‘s strategy of keeping King bottled up worked, but the latter part of the strategy never emerged as the Blue Devil offense was stymied by two four-down series.

On the Blue Devil defense, linebackers Joe Reed and Mason Adams shadowed King from his first jab step and met him at the line of scrimmage to limit his potential damage.

Simmons was relegated to fakes to King being effective to set up throws downfield to Marshall, Sean Washington and Terrance Anthony with Marshall snatching a 35 yard post pattern for the lone score.

On the first play of the second quarter, after Simmons directed a 11-play drive with two third down conversions to the Clay three, King crashed in to up the score to 14-0. Key plays on the drive were two seven yard runs by fullback Adrian Grey; one on third and three and a second on second and 10 to the Clay 44 that set up a Simmons’ 36 yard run after a fake to King to the Clay eight yard line. After a miss to Marshall, King lugged the ball into the end zone.

Clay looked desperate to stop any potential outburst by the Knights and Hoekstra settled in with seniors Cedrick Brown and Abbott Taylor challenging the interior of Oakleaf’s defense before quarterback Turner Erstad went airborne twice to wideout Spencer LeSage for quick outs of six and 12 yards to the Oakleaf 28 yard line.

Brown and LeSage exchange carries and catches to the 20 before Erstad found junior wideout Brishaun Britt for nine yards to the 11 before two shots by LeSage got a Blue Devil touchdown with 5:32 left in the half.

In the blink of a proverbial football eye, King, after a kickoff return from Darrius Allen to the Knight 34 yard line, shredded off right tackle for his second score of the night and a quick 21-7 Oakleaf edge just 21 seconds after most fans thought the game was going to become a defensive slugfest. King would finish with 195 yards on the night; mostly in big chunks.

Clay again regrouped behind LeSage and Erstad and took three minutes to cut the lead to 21-14 with a eight play drive highlighted by a Derek Holt catch and run for 15 yards to the Clay 45 and Brown pounding for 12 on the next snap to midfield to set up a Erstad to LeSage jump ball touchdown pass to put the game at 21-14 with 2:04 still left in the second quarter.

“Spencer was mad at himself for two plays against Orange Park that he had,” said Hoekstra. “He played strong.”

A pooch kickoff got Oakleaf first down at their own 37 and Simmons again used the danger of King; a fake handoff, to free Marshall for his second touchdown, a 30 yarder after just 20 seconds ticked off the clock with Oakleaf pushing to a 27-14 halftime lead.

Clay opened the second half with their first successful onsides kick and possession at the Oakleaf 47 with Taylor rumbling for three and Brown crashing for 28 to the Knights’ 19 where beefy freshman Al’Querius Ray pounded the interior of the Knights’ defense for gains of three, and 10 before scoring from six to score the game 27-21 in just three minutes.

King again for 26 yards to the Clay 34 preluded a magnificent sideline catch from Marshall to the Clay five where King scored to push Oakleaf to a 34-21 lead and fans wondering if another 70-60 barnburner was about to happen.

Mixing the now energized Clay offense with Ray’s heft pounding the interior and LeSage on the corners, Erstad directed another 10 play drive that had no third downs with Ray punching out a 15 yarder and LeSage grabbing a 12 yard pass to set up a Tucker Reape field goal to score the game 34-24 with 4:30. Erstad had two near-miss passes to have Hoekstra settle for the field goal.

Hoekstra slyly called for onsides kick number two and the Blue Devil sideline erupted at its success smelling yet another Clay miracle comeback.

“Our front line bailed on the first one (onsides kick) and the second one we didn’t even attack it the way we should have,” said Garis. “Those were great calls at that point by them. We have to do a better job of executing in that situation.”

From the Oakleaf 41, Ray took two snaps to trample for 16 yards with Erstad missing Britt at the end zone pylon. Back to Ray for six and Abbott for three more set up a reverse to LeSage from the Knights 21 to put the game at 34-31 and Oakleaf seemingly reeling at the audacity of the Blue Devils to not wilt.

On the next Oakleaf series, Clay defensive end Cody Devore stormed in on Simmons and got a strip sack that put the Blue Devil fan base into delirium.

From the Oakleaf 45, Erstad hit Holt for six yards with Ray pounding for three yards in two carries to set up a third and seven at the Oakleaf 26.

From there, Oakleaf senior middle linebacker Dexter Moore crashed through the Clay offensive line and piledrived Erstad into the ground for a five yard loss and a fourth and 11 yard situation for Clay.

“He’s our lightning bolt,” said Garis. “That play shook us awake. We kind of slowed down a little bit coming out for the second half and when that happened, it ignited everybody.”

On the fourth down play, Erstad attempted to throw to LeSage on an out pattern, but the pass fell short.

Oakleaf did not answer on the big defensive stop and Clay had one more breath left after Taylor, playing noseguard, and Jeremy Sims, the starting noseguard, combined with Ty Summerford, also a noseguard, clogged the middle of the Clay defense and stopped King on a fourth and 15 to give Clay possession at their own 35 with nearly nine minutes left in the game.

Hoeksta went right back to Ray and Abbott to try and get the knockout blow on the Oakleaf defense and, after LeSage, at quarterback, finished off a fourth and four to midfield for a first down, Erstad got caught by linebacker Marcus Anthony for an interception near midfield that put King back on the field with 5:51 on the clock.

Eleven seconds later, and 44 yards of running, King upped the score to 41-31 by outracing Clay linebacker Mason Adams to the corner of the end zone.

A kickoff by kicker Brandon Ammons to the end zone put Clay on the 20 and the Blue Devils needing to throw. This time, it was Chrystian Sellers who read Erstad’s pass and put the Knights back on offense at the Clay 38 where Simmons took two plays before hitting wideout Terrance Anthony on a hook pass that Anthony spun and eluded defensive back Eric Predmore to finish off the score and the final 49-31 score.

With a third quarterback in, sophomore T.K. Kocak, Clay tried to move the ball and nearly got Sellers a second interception before the game ended.

Oakleaf travels to Fleming Island for a key district 3-7A clash while Clay travels to Pedro Menendez for their second district 5-5A game.