Oakleaf gets redemption over Mandarin in playoff opener

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The kick sailed wide left, and Oakleaf’s players flooded off the sideline and onto the field with nine seconds remaining Friday night, jumping up and down and lifting their helmets in the air.

That celebration was 10 years in the making and worth every yard of the penalty that followed.

The visiting Knights scored the only points of the second half following a 16-play, 98-yard drive in the fourth quarter, as Andrew McDaid connected on a 30-yard field goal with 1:42 left in the Varsity 4 Game of the Week. Oakleaf then had to withstand Mandarin’s freshman quarterback Knox Annis, who sustained the following drive with his arm and legs.

After an illegal motion penalty nullified an Annis touchdown run, Ermin Mehmedovic, under heavy rush, missed on a potential game-tying 25-yard field goal with nine seconds left. So, the Knights finally could celebrate their first on-field playoff victory in 10 years with a 17-14 victory in the opening round of the Region 1-6A playoffs.

“It means a lot,” senior defensive lineman Amare’ Thomas said. “I’ve been here, starting on varsity for four years. We have a lot of heart and passion.

“A lot of emotion. Every workout during the summer, every conditioning period, every lift, it came all down to that. They started moving the ball, but we had to calm down and win the game. I just wanted to keep playing with my friends, my family.”

And he will. Oakleaf (8-3), the fifth seed in the region, will head to top-seeded Nease (10-0) next week for the region semifinals after the Panthers routed Cantonment Tate 42-14.

“It means a ton,” Knights coach Christopher Foy said. “When you at what the Oakleaf community has put into its football program, it has been a lot. They had one hard, hella schedule.”

That schedule, which featured only two teams with losing records, sharpened the Knights for a tight contest.

It was a game in which both teams could have regretted some plays. The Knights accepted a penalty that allowed fourth-seed Mandarin (7-4) to extend a drive and score a touchdown, while a botched snap on a Mustangs fourth down from the Oakleaf 2 was the impetus for the Knights’ long scoring drive, which burned 10:09 off the clock.

Following that field goal, Mandarin drove the field. Seventy yards from the end zone, Annis twice had back-breaking scrambles of 18 and 15 yards for first downs and connected on three of his nine attempts for 28 yards.

Facing 2nd-and-goal on the Knights 4, Annis, who had 62 rushing yards, scrambled into the end zone for what appeared to be the go-ahead score. But a flag was thrown, with officials ruling that a receiver turned upfield too quickly.

That was a theme. Penalties plagued fourth-seed Mandarin (7-4) all season, and the Mustangs were flagged 14 times for 135 yards against Oakleaf, with five of the Knights’ 10 second-half first downs coming via Mandarin penalties.

“Last (drive) of the game, we scored,” Mustangs coach Toby Bullock said. “They called an illegal shift that, in our opinion, wasn’t illegal. They said he turned upfield too soon. We looked at it on replay and didn’t see it. It happens.

“But we’ve got to get better at it overall. We struggled with it all year. That’s on me.”

The celebration started after two incompletions and the missed kick.

“We’re changing the culture,” said Oakleaf receiver Carlos Witherup, whose three catches for 60 yards included the game’s first score. “I just feel great. I’m proud of my team, proud of my coaches, proud of the fans for coming out. Roll to state.”

There were plenty of things to savor. The first playoff victory on the field — the Knights were awarded a postseason forfeit over Nease during the 2020 COVID season — and a little revenge for three weeks ago when Mandarin beat Oakleaf 18-7 for the District 2-6A title.

That defeat relegated Oakleaf to one of the region’s four at-large berths, while the Mustangs clinched the district title.

“A lot more passion,” said Thomas, who had two tackles for loss. “We had revenge (in mind). We keyed on that in practice. They came onto our field and won it, and we had to do the same. The difference is, they’re going home, and we’re not. They can have that (district title), but we’re moving on.”

There was also resilience as Christopher Foy II, the Knights senior running back who has had five 100-yard rushing games this season, was knocked out of the game in the first quarter with a shoulder bruise after only three touches.

Mandarin held the Knights to less than 1.5 yards a carry, but C.J. Moses and Malachi Warthen came up big on the final drive, with 27 and 21 rushing yards respectively on that possession. With Jack McKissock completing all three of his attempts — and with the Mustangs penalties — Oakleaf moved from its own 2 to as far as the Mandarin 10 before McDaid connected.

Aside from that field goal, all the scoring came in the second quarter.

After a slow start, Mandarin’s offense clicked on its first drive of the second quarter. An interception — and long return — by Knights defensive back Jordin Price was wiped out by a pass interference call. The Mustangs polished off the nine-play drive when Annis scrambled four yards for a touchdown on third down to tie the game at 7.

Mandarin followed that with a three-and-out stand by its defense and a 42-yard punt return by Josiah Watkins to the Oakleaf 8. Though the Knights forced a 4th-and-goal from the 5, they opted to take a 10-yard holding call and replay third down.

On the next play, Annis rolled out for 13 yards, and Deion Winstead bulled in from the 2 on fourth down for a 14-7 Mustangs lead.

Oakleaf countered, using two big pass plays — one to Witherup and one to Michael Conner — to set up Jack McKissock’s second touchdown pass of the game, a 5-yard toss to Price to tie the game at the half.

A third-quarter interception by Mandarin’s Kemari Spriggs set Mandarin up at the Knights 39. Facing fourth-and-goal at the Oakleaf 2, Bullock went for it. But unlike the first successful conversion, the snap rolled through Annis’ legs. He scrambled to recover the ball and heaved up a pass under pressure that was incomplete.

Then came the game-defining drive which, with a defensive stand tacked on at the end, was enough for the Knights to move to the next round.

“(Mandarin is) such a strong program, and that’s the direction we want to move in,” Coach Foy said. “The first time you play them, they looked like they’ve been there before. So, to get another chance at it was something special for us.”

It’s a wrap for Mandarin. A season that began with title-game hopes ended four games shy of that. The Mustangs had to overcome the loss of star quarterback Tramell Jones in the second game of the season and rode its defense to the district title, losing only to powerhouses Bradford, St. Augustine and IMG Academy.

“I think it tells me my assistant coaches do a good job in building relationships and coaching in putting ourselves in position to be in the playoffs,” Bullock said. “But, at the same time, we’ve got to do a better job.”

Oakleaf 17, Mandarin 14

Oakleaf, 0, 14, 0, 3 —17

Mandarin, 0, 14, 0, 0 —14

O – Carlos Witherup 18 pass from Jack McKissock (Andrew McDaid kick)

M – Knox Annis 4 run (Ermin Mehmedovic kick)

M – Deion Winstead 2 run (Mehmedovic kick)

O – Jordin Price 5 pass from McKissock (McDaid kick)

O – McDaid 30 FG

Category: O — M

First downs: 17 — 10

Rushes-yards: 35-52   24-144

Passing: 137 — 62

Comp-Att-Int: 9-16-1 — 8-24-0

Fumbles-lost: 1-1 — 0-0

Penalties-Yards: 10-68 — 14-135

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — O: Malachi Warthen 13-48, Cornell Moses 9-27, Christopher Foy 2-7, Team 1-(-2), Fareed Coleman 2-(-13), McKissock 8-(-15). M: Shaunqeze Foster 13-70, Annis 5-62, Winstead 6-12.

PASSING — O: McKissock 9-16-1-137. M: Annis 8-24-0-62.

RECEIVING — O: Witherup 3-60, Michael Conner 2-38, Price 2-15, Warthen 1-11, Foy 1-3. M: Jaime Ffrench 4-27, Brysen Wright 3-25, Ethan Sherman 1-10.