Sophomore Moses "pushes" Oakleaf to round two

by Randy Lefko
randy@claytodayonline.com

MANDARIN - The Oakleaf High Knights football team went old school Friday night in their region opener against Mandarin and the payoff was huge as the Knights defeated Mandarin 17-14 off an Andrew McDaid field goal with two minutes on the clock.
"This win means a ton to the Oakleaf football community," said Oakleaf head coach Chris Foy, in his second year and now with his first playoff berth and victory for the Knights. "When you look at our schedule; it was hellacious, and that has a lot to do with this football program and this Mandarin team was a great team."

Region 1-6A plus the rest of Class 6A

The win propels the No. 5 seed Knights to a region semifinal against No. 1 seed and unbeaten Nease High on Friday. Nease, 10-0 with wins over the likes of St. Augustine, Buchholz (in overtime), and Bartram Trail, beat No. 8 Tate High out of the Panhandle 42-14 to also advance.
In the rest of the region 1-6A bracket, No. 3 Pace High defeated No. 6 Oviedo 49-12 while No. 2 Buchholz defeated No. 7 Evans 42-21. Both Oviedo and Evans are from the Orlando area.
In the second region semifinal of region 1-6A, Pace will visit Buchholz at Citizen's Field in Gainesville.
Also playing in region semifinals in Class 6A are Tampa Plant at Tampa Armwood, Osceola at Durant (Region 2-6A), Mitchell at West Boca Raton, Largo at Wiregrass Ranch (Region 3-6A), Monarch at Miami Southridge, and Piper at West Broward (Region 4-6A).

Florida Class 6A Rankings, MaxPreps (as of Nov. 12)

1. Nease (9-0)
2. Armwood (Seffner) (10-0, region semifinalist 2023)
3. West Boca Raton (10-0, region semifinalist 2023)
4. Buchholz (6-3, Final Four 2023)
5. Pace (9-1)
6. Miami Southridge (8-2, region semifinalist 2023)
8. Oakleaf (7-3)
9. Osceola (8-2, region quarters 2023)
10. Monarch (Coconut Creek) (6-3, Final Four 2023)
11. Piper (Sunrise) (9-1, region quarters 2023)
12. Mitchell (New Port Richey) (10-0)
14. Plant (Tampa) (7-3, Final Four 2023)
15. Wiregrass Ranch (Wesley Chapel) (9-1, region semifinalist 2023)
16. Durant (Plant City) (7-3, region semifinalist 2023)
17. West Broward (Pembroke Pines) (7-3, region quarters 2023)
27. Largo (6-4, region semifinalist 2023)

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Against Mandarin, after halftime ended with both teams locked at 14-14, Oakleaf offensive line coach Bubba Horne challenged his guys up front to "man up" with a strength vs. strength attack that featured sophomore running back Cornell Moses, Jr., in action because senior running back Chris Foy II bumped a shoulder early in the first quarter.
"At the end of the day, we; me and coach Foy, believe in physicality and that we have the best conditioned big guys up front and we challenged them at the end there to show up," said Horne. "When all else fails and your backs are up against the wall like we were, you just put them in the box and let them fight it out and that's what our guys did."
For coach Chris Foy, the decision to put Moses in the backfield was a no-brainer.
"Our move was to issue this challenge; Stop Us," said Foy. "The kid looks a lot like my Chris; low to ground, powerful legs, and a lot of drive we had to move the ball and we knew they probably have the best defensive secondary in the country. We wanted to make the line of scrimmage a little uncomfortable for them."
Horne's prophecy worked to put McDaid in position in the fourth quarter to be the gamewinner, but it was Moses who provided the muscle with the ball with successive crashes between the tackles; four in a row to start a 20 play drive that ate nearly 10 minutes of fourth quarter game clock.
"All I know is the team trusted me to do my job because Chris got hurt," said Moses, who had just 11 snaps for the season in five games before his nine carries for 36 yards proved pivotal for the Knights' success. "I knew my guys up front would protect me and my job was to stay upright, not lose the ball and keep moving forward."
Up front, the Knights offensive line, which limited quarterback Jack Mckissock to just nine completions in the Mustangs' 18-7 win over Oakleaf for the district title three weeks prior, to a 13 of 16 night with whistling passes to Carlos Witherup and Jordin Price to secure the Knights' 14 points.
"We knew up front that we did not do our job in that first game and we wanted some get back," said Oakleaf offensive lineman Reggie Houston. "We were not going to step backward one step in the final drive and we were going to get Cornell extra yards when we could."
For McKissock, the difference was just reading the secondary faster.
"In the first game, I was taking too long to let the ball go," said Mckissock. "Coach worked all week to make quick progression reads and also to put some work on the receivers to find open space faster because of their great secondary."
After a scoreless first quarter, Mckissock struck with Witherup with a brilliant fake to running back Malachi Worthen that froze the vaunted Mustang secondary and had Witherup all alone in the end zone on the first play of the second quarter.
On Mandarin's ensuing drive, Oakleaf defensive back Jordin Price was denied by a questionable pass interference call on a superb interception where he outleaped Ffrench at the Oakleaf and returned the steal to the Mustang 30.
With the flag, Mandarin scored four plays later to tie the game at 7-7.
Mandarin doubled up with Ffrench for a score to go up 14-7, but Mckissock methodically spliced the Mustang secondary with a 30-yard pass to Witherup, a 30-yard pass to Micheal Connor to the Mustang six, and a back-of-the-end zone sizzler to Price to tie the game 14-14.
As the scoreless third quarter ended; the game tied 14-14, Mandarin quarterback Knox Annis flubbed a third down center snap from the Oakleaf three-yard line and an overthrown pass to all-nation wide receiver Jaime Ffrench in the end zone in what was certainly going to be a game-changing score for the Mustangs that turned to a breath of life for the Knights with a start at their own three-yard line.
"Time to measure up, was that drive a thing of beauty," said Foy. "I told them, football is a simple game, man on man."
After Moses pushed for two quick first downs runs in four carries, Mandarin got a sack that put Oakleaf at a second and 16 to go before running back Malachi Worthen took a handoff and pass to put Oakleaf at fourth and one at midfield. Mckissock missed Witherup on a pass, but Mandarin defensive back Tamajh Mitchell got tagged for pass interference to keep the drive alive.
"That was one for us," said Foy. "We had to take advantage and not let the game get away from us."
From that point, at the Mandarin 32-yard line with six minutes still left in the game and Mandarin not touching the offensive side of the line of scrimmage, Mckissock, cool as the back side of a pillow, engineered bits and pieces of Foy and Horne's muscle attack up front with a third-down pass to Witherup to put Oakleaf at the Mustang 16; a Moses power carry to the Mustang 12 and a run from Warthen to the 14 with 1:58 left on the clock for McDaid to hit his game-winner.
"We knew had range from even further than that," said Foy. "We were just getting him as close as possible while taking down the clock."
Mandarin's final push provided more drama for the game's finish as the Mustangs moved quickly after a fair catch on the kickoff put them at the 40 with 1:46 on the clock.
Mandarin was not ready to relinquish their past history of state runnerup and state champion with a fair catch at the 30 giving Mustang fans some air to breathe with the explosive Mustang offense.
A quick pass to Ffrench put Mandarin at the 42 of Oakleaf with 1:28 on the clock.
On first down, Oakleaf defensive tackle Amare Thomas swiped down a pass attempt from Knox that also got a Mandarin time-out.
Knox moved the chains with a scramble to the Oakleaf 15 but two passes got defensed by Price and Kaylib Singleton on Ffrench to put the Mustangs at fourth down, but a flag gave Mandarin third and five at the Oakleaf 20 with 58 seconds.
Mandarin worked to a first down at the 11 with linebacker Jermaine Robinson making the stop before a second and the goal at the five got a Mandarin sweep right into the end zone that also had a flag on the ground.
With 24 seconds left, after the flag, Mandarin got backed up to the 10 of Oakleaf; second and five, but Oakleaf held and Mandarin kicker Trinton Bryant's kick went wide left to end the game with seven seconds. Oakleaf had one final snap at the Oakleaf one-yard line.