Edgewater tops Osceola but loses QB; Boone edges Timber Creek
A seemingly perfect first half for Edgewater in its spring football power programs game against Kissimmee Osceola took a turn with one hit on Wednesday night.
As promising freshman quarterback Michael Clayton dropped back to pass with time winding down in the second quarter, Osceola pass rusher Blaze Jones came around the edge for a sack. Clayton, pegged to start for the Eagles as a sophomore, was hurt on the play. He exited the game with a broken collarbone, putting a damper on Edgewater’s 24-7 home at Frank Lough Field.
“He was playing lights out,“Eagles coach Cameron Duke said. “He had great command of the offense, was throwing accurately. He’s had a phenomenal spring and he’s going to be a great football player.
“This is one of those things. He’ll bounce back quickly from and we just pray for a good recovery. The future is very bright with him at quarterback.”
Clayton threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to rising senior wideout Cai Bates in his lone quarter of action.
Sophomore-to-be Lawrence Pipkins and rising senior Kaden Shields-Dutton ran for Edgewater TDs.
The Eagles are tasked with replacing All-State running back Cedric Baxter, who signed with Texas, and quarterback Chase Carter, who is headed to NCAA Division II champion Ferris State in Michigan. And they played without multiple players who are likely to make a big impact in the fall, including receivers AJ Howard and sophomore Semaj Fleming, who is set to join Carter on Edgewater’s 4×100-meter relay unit in Friday’s Class 3A state track and field championship meet in Jacksonville.
“The leadership by our senior class has a chance to be very special,” Duke said. “These guys love one another and they’re playing for each other.”
Osceola lost a number of college-bound players from a team that reached a 2022 Class 4S Region 2 semifinal before losing to eventual state champion Lakeland 14-7.
Defensive tackle John Walker (UCF), defensive back Bo Mascoe (Rutgers), defensive end Derrick Leblanc (Oklahoma) and defensive back Ja’Keem Jackson (Florida) are all entering the D-I level. Quarterback David Buggs also graduated.
“We’re really young,“said Kowboys coach Eric Pinellas. “I knew that fundamentals and trying to develop depth and things of that nature are what we wanted to accomplish. We don’t put too much into the wins and the losses in the spring, it’s just trying to develop as a cohesive offense and getting the defense to gel after losing so many kids. I felt like we were able to accomplish that, especially in the second half.”
The Kowboys don’t have a quarterback on their roster with varsity experience. Rising senior wide receiver Notorious Reynolds played a majority of the game under center for Osceola, but he threw the ball sparingly. Pinellas said Reynolds was thrust into the role just before spring practice began.
UCF commit Taevion Swint, still a sophomore with two strong varsity seasons behind him, carried a bulk of the workload for the Kowboys in the second and third quarters. He scored Osceola’s only TD after breaking several tackles on a 15-yard run.
“He’s the gas that makes the engine go,” Pinellas said.
Osceola’s defense was without a number of young players who figure to see significant playing time, including defensive backs Kyri Watson and Ja’mario Bradford and linebacker Jeremiah Wiggins-Baker.
Boone 14, Timber Creek 13
The Timber Creek and Boone football teams tested themselves against each other in a competitive spring game on Wednesday night.
Boone, which warmed up in an official’s training scrimmage last week at Bishop Moore, won the exhibition game 14-13.
It was close all the way after rising seniors Laggarius Marshell of Boone and AJ Williams of Timber Creek scored early touchdowns.
Marshell is expected to carry a heavy load for the Braves in the 2023 season.
“[Laggarius] is one of the elite running backs in Central Florida, perhaps the state of Florida,” Boone coach Andy Johnson said. “He’s got to be a workhorse for us. He’s gotta carry it 25 times a game and impact the game a lot of different ways.”
Timber Creek coach Jim Buckridge said the game gave his coaching staff a chance to evaluate their depth heading into the next season — always an important factor for high school teams preparing for the fall.
“We played everybody. We played a bunch of kids, and that’s what we wanted to do,” Buckridge said. “We felt they had a good spring, so even if they only played two or three plays, we wanted to get a lot of kids in there because that gives them the incentive to work out in the summer and come back in the fall.”
Buckridge said his goal is to compete against Winter Park for the district championship.
Johnson said Wednesday’s outing gave his staff a chance to evaluate who might be new starters in key positions.
“We’re trying to figure out who our quarterback is gonna be,” he said. “We’re replacing four starters on the O-line. We’ve got four to five key contributors out due to injury or state track [Saturday], so we’re just trying to find some kids who can play.”