ORANGE PARK - Going into Friday nights home preseason game against Bishop Kenny High School, Orange Park High football coach Tom Macpherson’s game plan was very vanilla; vanilla being football vernacular for basic, simple, boring football.

“We wanted to keep it simple,” said Macpherson, who watched his “Vanilla” get behind 20-0 to the Crusaders in the clash. “ We didn’t want to show too much heading into our prime time matchup next week against county rival Oakleaf.”

Macpherson’s reference to Prim Time Matchup was Saturday’s season opener at the Bolles School featuring TV coverage of Orange Park and Oakleaf in their rivalry opener.

“It’s a chance for both programs to get a little limelight and exposure and, as most athletes do, a chance to show out on the big screen,” said Oakleaf High coach Frank Garis, who may have also put down a little “Vanilla” at his preseason game, a 35-6 finish against Bolles.

The Raiders and Knights will travel to the Bolles School Campus on Saturday night to headline a triple header; the Bold City Showcase as the event finale at 7 p.m. The Bold City Showcase, an idea spurned last year by COVID, is an Airstreams Venue event featuring three games; West Nassau vs. Bolles on Friday, Ribault vs. Creekside on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Oakleaf vs. Orange Park as the finale at 7 p.m.; all games at Bolles and all games televised live on WJXT TV and livestreamed via Newsjax4.com as well as radio broadcast on 1010XL and 92.5FM.As for the Orange Park scrimmege, Bishop Kenny scored on all four of its possessions in the second quarter to grab a 20-0 lead at halftime. The game was delayed by lightening thee plays into the third quarter with mostly varsity backups and JV players on the field.

Raider junior Jojo Restall had two kickoff returns totaling 70 yards while carrying the ball five times for 12 yards while senior quarterback Tavien Wilkerson completed 5-of-9 passes for 42 yards and rushed for 21 yards on three carries. Wilkerson exhibited very good scrambling ability and had hard luck on two dropped passes including one that would have been a touchdown. Raider wide receiver Brian Green ran nice pass routes catching three passes for 24 yards. On defense, Orange Park safety Ryan Rykalsky had four tackles including two for loss while linebacker Britton Roberts had two quarterback hurries and stuffed a third down rushing attempt for Orange Park. Nolan Chambers played well at cornerback breaking up two third down conversion plays. The Raider area of concern in the second quarter was giving up field position on poor punts. The Crusaders started inside the Raider 28 yard-line on a TD score and close to midfield on their three other scores.