By: J. Daniel Pearson
For Positively Osceola
By nature, Poinicana head football coach Taron Mallard is a positive guy. That was never more apparent in Thursday night’s 33-12 exhibition Kickoff Classic loss to Orlando Christian Prep.
Although it was a game where Poinciana gave up two special teams touchdowns and were down 27-0 at halftime, Mallard saw a lot of positives in his team’s performance. “First this team never gave up and fought hard to the end and that was a big positive. We had some execution issues, especially in the first half, but I saw a lot of good things tonight we can build off. I have to smile because I know how explosive this offense can be.”
One of the execution issues Poinciana must fix, however, is their center-quarterback exchanges. Ten different times either low or high snaps were not handled, resulting in 69 yards in losses. Bobbled snaps resulted in four additional losses of yardage via quarterback sacks.
“It something that obviously has to be addressed, we are going to run out of the shotgun so we have to be able to get the ball back to the quarterback smoothly,” Mallard said. “Way too many high and low snaps, but its not all on the center, either, there were some snaps I thought our quarterbacks should have handled.”
The Eagles would fall behind early in the game when OCP took the short opening kickoff, lateralled back to Akeevin Anderson, who rambled 80 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead. Poinciana countered with a couple of early first downs running on its opening drive, but two errant snaps set them back 11 yards and quarterback Terell Jones, a transfer from Sarasota Booker, was sacked on fourth down as the drive stalled at midfield.
Anderson picked a quick 10 yards on two carries and Zeke Gunn raced 32 yards on a sweep to make it 14-0. On the next series, Anderson would field a Poinciana punt on the bounce and race 60 yards for a score. A 27-yard pass play from quarterback Nicolas Flores to Anderson highlighted a 9-play 64-yard drive as OCP made it a 27-0 lead at half.
With Jones cramping, WR Kamari Lewis – who handled quarterback duties last spring—replaced Jones late in the second quarter. Prior to moving to quarterback, the electric Lewis touched the ball just once in the first half, gaining 28 yards on a screen.
Although he completed just three of nine passes in the second half, one of those was a 70-yard touchdown pass to Chance Frazier. He finished with 135 yards passing and 45 yards rushing.
Mallard was not-committal on who would start next week at quarterback. “We need to figure that out, because I also had a tall, athletic kid walk into by office yesterday who transferred in from Wisconsin. We will evaluate everything and make a decision for next week. I will say that I did a disservice to Lewis tonight. Regardless of where he plays, I have got to find ways to get the ball in his hands more often.”
Other bright spots for the Eagles were the running of Daveon Williams and Sean Abdul. The two combined for 163 yards on the night – including a beautiful 52-yard touchdown run by Williams in the fourth quarter; where he fought through several gang tackles.
Mallard concluded by saying a lack of outdoor practice was a big reason for OCP’s big special teams plays. “Because of heat and thunder storms, we had exactly zero time on the practice field this week. There’s no way you can teach special teams coverage working in the film room and gym. We don’t like excuses, but its just hard get ready with no outdoor practice time.”
The Eagles will open their regular season next Friday when they host Celebration. The other seven county teams will play in their Kickoff Classic Exhibitions tonight (Friday) with Osceola traveling to Daytona Beach Mainland, Harmony hosting The Villages Charter, Gateway at home against Windermere, St. Cloud playing at Innovation; Tohopekaliga at home to Timber Creek, Liberty playing at University and Celebration hosting Discovery. All kickoffs at 7 p.m.
Orlando Christian Prep 33, Poinciana 12
Scoring Summary
OCP: Akeevin Anderson 80 kickoff return (Run Failed)
OCP: Zeke Gunn 32 Run (Anderson Run)
OCP: Anderson 60 Punt Return (Run Failed)
OCP: Gilbert MacKay 11 Pass from Nicholas Flores (Dominick Elder kick)
OCP: Flores 3 Run (Kick Failed)
P: Chance Frazier 70 pass from Kamari Lewis (Pass Failed)
P: Daveon Williams 52 Run (Run Failed)
