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Fingertip miss ends Bartram loss

By Randy Lefko Sports Editor
Posted 10/28/20

BARTRAM TRAIL - Oakleaf High quarterback Walter Simmons put on an offensive showcase of his skills with a 70 yard scoring pass to Cobie Bates in the first quarter and an 80 yard breakaway scoring run …

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Fingertip miss ends Bartram loss


Posted

BARTRAM TRAIL - Oakleaf High quarterback Walter Simmons put on an offensive showcase of his skills with a 70 yard scoring pass to Cobie Bates in the first quarter and an 80 yard breakaway scoring run of his own in the second quarter, but his final pass of the night, a bomb attempt to a wide open Bates skirted off Bates’ fingernails as the Bartram Trail High Bears, with a dramatic 54 yard field goal, beat Oakleaf 30-27 Friday night at Bartram Trail High School.

“We talked to the kids all week that this was the de facto district championships,” said Oakleaf coach Frank Garis, referring to the recently released playoff schedules for 2020 with teams paired through a blind random drawing despite records. “We have too much in our program to say, ‘don’t worry, we’ll see you again’, we put it all out on the table tonight.”

In yet another classic matchup of the two northeast Florida powerhouses, Oakleaf High jetted to a quick 20-3 lead off the Bates catch and an Adrian Gray scoring run to answer Bartram Trail’s opening drive field goal.

“They are the number one team in the area,” said Garis. “The reason is that they play a full 48 minutes of football, great execution and they make it insanely hard on us with their style of offense; that triple and quadruple option style. We have to be technically sound on every play.”

Garis’ frustration comes from playing great games against Bartram Trail but no wins.

“We are a program beyond moral victories against teams like this,” said Garis. “It’s about finishing these games and winning these games.”

Oakleaf High’s defense, led by interceptions from Larry Smith and Trey Thomas, kept the Bears high-octane offense in check for most of the game with linebacker Deric Andrews nearly blocking a second quarter field goal attempt that went wide left on Andrews’ hurry. Bartram Trail had one blocked PAT kick of Drew Ammon in the first quarter.

“Our defense dictates that we can take some fourth down chances in a game,” said Garis. “Those guys on defense give us the confidence to do that.”

Garis noted that Bartram Trail’s success was found off the corners of the Knights’ defense scheme.

“Our two big guys in the middle; Lamon Robertson and De’Areion Scott, made them not be able to give the ball to the dive back in the middle of the field,” said Garis. “Those two kind of flat-walled the line of scrimmage and made them more and more of a pitch team on the triple option. Those two made them turn the game into our unblocked defenders on the outside.”

In the second quarter, Bartram Trail flipped the field and forced two Oakleaf punts from the end zone that set up one touchdown on a four yard run as the Bears cut the early lead to 13-10 just before Simmons, with a start at the Knights; 20, found a seam off his center guard gap and galloped to paydirt on the first play after the kickoff to put the lead back at 20-10.

“That was just a big hole with a lot of space and I just ran,” said Simmons, who has time on the Oakleaf High track team in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. “Our line moved them.”

Smith came up big on the next first play for Bartam Trail with a full horizontal interception that gave the Knights the ball near midfield. Bartram Trail’s defense locked down with a tackle for loss of Gray that put Ammon on the for a punt.

Ammon, in the Knights’ quarterback rotation with Tanner Walker, calmly threw a perfect pass to Bates that put Oakleaf’s offense back on the field, but Oakleaf stalled on four downs.

“We’ve worked that during practices and it was a good time to try it,” said Garis.

Bartram Trail got a big run from tailback A.J. Jones, but also stalled and settled for a field goal to score the game 20-13 with 3:36 left to the half.With Bartram Trail kicker David Kemp putting all of his kickoffs out of the end zone and forcing Oakleaf to start most of their drives from 80 yards away, Gray exploded for 24 yards on the first carry after the kickoff to put Oakleaf near midfield with about a minute to halftime, but Simmons misfired on passes to end the half.

In the third, Oakleaf was hampered by a Devin Outlaw fumble on their first drive that ended at midfield.

Oakleaf punched in with strong defense that ended with a fourth quarter pass break up from Isaiah Jones at the Oakleaf 35. Bartram Trail got their own four and out defensive stand with Gray stopped short on fourth and three yards.

“We still are focusing on finishing, we started out strong in the first half which I was excited about,” said Garis. “We played unbelievably well on defense, but we have to convert.”

Bartram Trail took over at their own 39 and moved swiftly into Oakleaf territory, but Thomas stepped in front of a drag route to snag an interception at the Knight 19 yard line.

Into the fourth period, with the scoring knotted at 20-20, Gray broke through the line and outran the Bears defensve for an 80 yard scoring run that gave the Knights a 27-20.

“Adrian week in and week out will deliver for us,” said Garis. “He’s a volume guy that wants the ball and when he hits, he hits big. He ran away from kid on that play that has three or four Division I offers.”

Again, Oakleaf’s defense got a turnover with cornerback Darrell Livingston emerging from a scrum with the ball at the Bears’ 44 yard line. The Bears caught Simmons for a sack on fourth and two to take over at their own 22 with 5:37 left in the game.

A quick pass to Jones downfield turned into a 50 yard gain with missed tackles with Jones finally wrestled down at the Oakleaf 30. Two more quick passes put the Bears at the Knights’ nine yard line where Jones finished the effort to tie the game at 27-27 with 3:40 to go.

Bartram Trail knocked down a Simmons pass on fourth and two to thwart an Oakleaf scoring effort at the Bears’ 40 with 2:32 left.

With Kemp warming up on the sideline, Bartram Trail coach Darryl Sutherland was banking on his all star kicker with runs putting ball at the Knights’ 35 yard line. Oakleaf linebacker Chrystian Sellers smashed Jones on third down and put Kemp’s spot at 54 yards away, but, undeterred, Kemp nailed the kick for the apparent gamewinner.

Again, starting at their own 20 after Kemp’s end zone kickoff at 1:23 to go, Simmons missed twice before lofting a fourth down rainbow in Bates’ direction behind the Bears secondary that caromed off Bates’ fingertips and fell to the ground to end the game.