Oxbridge rushes to victory
Defense holds Glades Central offense to 94 yards in shutout.
WEST PALM BEACH — Ground and pound was the story of the night for Oxbridge Academy.
Oxbridge, the No. 1 team in Class 3A in this week’s Associated Press poll, rushed for 227 yards and four touchdowns in a 31-0 rout of Glades Central on Thursday night.
“It’s great, because they had to guard three running backs,” quarterback Gio Richardson said.
Richardson got the scoring started for the ThunderWolves (3-1) on a 1-yard keeper about two minutes into the game. A few drives later, he ran in a 20-yard touchdown on an option play.
“I like running more,” said Richardson, who had 35 yards on 11 carries. “I want to run more.”
Running backs James Meeks and Luis Gonzalez each scored a touchdown, with Meeks’ coming on a 15-yard score in the first quarter and Gonzalez’s 5-yard run coming in the third quarter.
Meeks finished with 109 yards on 19 carries, while Gonzalez had 96 yards on 12 touches, but coach Brendan Kent thinks there is room for improvement.
“They did a good job,” Kent said. “There were a couple times they were in open space, it was one-on-one, they’ve got to (get a block) and score. But we’ll clean it up.”
Richardson and Raiders quarterback Jaeze Tracey each threw a pair of interceptions. Antavious Lane and Kyle Vanputtenvink had the picks for Oxbridge, which is No. 1 in the Post’s poll. E.J. Jackson and Jamarian Green had the interceptions for Glades Central (2-2), which is ranked seventh.
“Our defense, man, we played very good,” ThunderWolves defensive back C.J. Smith said.
The Glades Central offense managed only 94 total yards.
“The one thing we didn’t do on defense was we didn’t score on defense,” Kent said. “So we’ll talk about that.”
Smith’s secondary had an especially good night, holding Tracey to 84 yards on 8 of 28 passing — 40 of those yards came on a late, deep pass to James Davis.
“Most of the time, when they threw the ball incomplete into blown coverage, we got back to it,” Smith said.
The ThunderWolves had one passing touchdown, when Richardson found senior V’Lique Carter in the corner of the end zone for an 18-yard score. Richardson finished 9 for 19 for 139 yards.
But Kent thinks his team will have to get better.
“We left a lot of points on the field tonight,” he said, “and there’s going to be a lot that we can clean up on film.”