Baker County shuts out Oakleaf as both head into summer

OAKLEAF – Baker County has made a habit of ruining opponents homecomings, senior nights, etc., what’s one more.

Hosting its inaugural home spring game despite being open for 7 years, Oakleaf fans were highly enthusiastic and hopeful but the visiting Wildcats sent them home with a 14-0 loss unfortunately.

Both teams entered spring with lots of questions as both had to fill several huge holes thanks to huge graduating classes.

No shoes are bigger to fill though than those of Seth Paige, Josh Haygood and Lee Graham, who all moved on. No problem for the Wildcats though as spring was spent to figure out those roles.

It didn’t take long for some of those questions to be answered with the emergence of rising sophomore tailback Scooby Graham, rising sophomore Alex Bowen, rising senior John Green and rising senior tight end Chase Hancock.

With no live special teams, teams started each possession at their own 25 each drive, unless after a turnover or a fair catch punt.

It was the defense that made the first big play as Chris Smith picked off a Tre Simmons well under thrown pass to give the Wildcats their second offensive possession.

Bowen, who transferred in January from Yulee, showed off his legs and arm at times to help move the chains and methodically move the Wildcats down the field.

Bowen directed the Wildcats down the field hitting Will Keinath on a third and 15 play for a 43 yard gain down to the 27-yard line.

One play later he connected with Hancock for a 9 yard gain down to the 18-yard line.

Four plays later, Graham took a hand off from Bowen and raced 15 yards down the left sideline untouched for a 7-0 lead with 1:42 left in the first quarter.

On its second possession, the Oakleaf offense finally put it together. Playing without its leader rising senior tailback Keshawn King, who was out with a concusssion, the Knights looked to others to step up and fill the roles.

One of those players was rising sophomore Kevin (KD) Davis, who made the most of his opportunity picking up gains of 4, 5 and 6 on his first three carries, while showing off his skills and speed with a 25 yard run later in the second quarter.

Davis was stopped well short of the first down on fourth and six on the first play of the second quarter, the Wildcats took over near midfield.

Bowen led them to another scoring drive going 62 yards in 12 plays capping it with fullback Kelton Knabb’s 2 yard run, which gave the Wildcats a 14-0 lead with 5:26 left till half.

No play was bigger than the second play of the drive as Bowen kept the ball on a surprise bootleg and rumbled 23 yards down the Wildcats sideline before being pushed out at the 45-yard line. Bowen connected with Keinath again on a fourth and 7 play to keep the drive going.

After Davis 25 yard gain down to the 45 yard line, the Knights offense sputtered and was forced to punt again.

Bowen found Hancock for a 14 yard gain to put them at midfield, but Bowen was hit as he was throwing the ball on the ensuing play and fumbled the ball away to the Knights giving the Knights one final chance with 1:32 left till half.

However, two incomplete passes and two short runs by Davis forced another punt and gave the ball back to the Wildcats again.

Bowen took a couple knees as the half ended, with the Wildcats prevailing 14-0 in the starters portion of the game as backups and junior varsity players played the entire second half, which ended in a 7-7 tie.

Despite being shut out, Oakleaf showed some signs of progress on both sides of the ball as Simmons has a fantastic arm and must continue to work on his timing routes and linebacker Dexter Moore looks like the next great defensive player for the Knights.

Other players standing out were massive offensive rising junior lineman Jalen Rivers, rising junior defensive end Chantz Williams and rising sophomore safety Chrystian Sellers.

Both teams saw plenty of things to work on as both began to prepare for the summer and fall workouts now, until practice starts July 30.

“I was really pleased with our effort on offense, we have a lot of solid guys, they’re just young as some of these guys have been with me now for three years as backups and some of our guys are going to have play both ways as well,” Baker County head coach Jamie Rodgers said. ” I thought our offensive line really asserted itself tonight, although we missed some blocks, we’ll clean them up.”

Rodgers was very pleased with his new transfer quarterback, who he finally got a look at outside of 20 days of spring practice.

“He’s a great leader, I think the most important thing tonight is he earned their respect tonight,” Rodgers said. “He made a couple of bad reads but for the most part I think he played really well.”

Another player Rodgers couldn’t wait to talk about was his new tailback Scooby Graham, cousin of Lee Graham.

“He’s a special player and he’s going to have a special year for us,” Rodgers said.

The defense played really well shutting down a potent Oakleaf offense and shutting them out in a half.

“Defensively I was really pleased with our effort, we made some mistakes in the secondary but those guys are ninth and tenth graders though except Chris Smith our safety, who made a heck of a play on that ball.”

Both teams now begin the long process of summer workouts, while eagerly anticipating the first day of practice July 30.

“Now its all about building off this and getting ready for 28 days of lifting,” Rodgers said. “We’re not really physical yet, but we’ll get there. I’m excited and ready to get to work.”

We don't want no problems, oh wait he's not the rapper he's Chantz Williams a tough physical head-knocker 5 star type of player with 17 offers pic.twitter.com/rsDQ1rZGl0

— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) May 18, 2018

Massive junior lineman Jalen Rivers is on everybody's radar. Big time lineman needs no introduction at all. pic.twitter.com/tPqFZ0jKsQ

— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) May 18, 2018