After his team’s 28-0 loss at Ft. White, Keystone Heights coach Chuck Dickinson said his offense isn’t going anywhere until it can straighten out its center-quarterback exchange.
The coach said his team dropped eight snaps during the game, in addition to six more center-quarterback miscues in the prior week’s matchup at Eastside High School in Gainesville.
“That’s a quarter of our offensive plays,” Dickinson said of the dropped snaps. “We can’t keep putting the ball on the ground.”
The coach added that after the Eastside game he focused on improving snaps throughout practice last week and the additional reps appeared to pay off before Friday night.
However, in Columbia County, the dropped snaps resurfaced in a game that featured a steady rain.
“We’ve got to clean that up,” he said, adding that even when his team recovered the lost snaps, the errors killed offensive drives. “Last year we lost one fumble in nine games. We’ve got to play penalty free and secure the football.”
Dickinson acknowledged that a wet ball contributed to both the Eastside and Ft. White fumbles and that his offensive starters are inexperienced.
However, with an entire game plan built around offensive ball control, drive-killing fumbles can wreak havoc not only with the offense but also with the Indian defenders.
Ft. White scored on its opening possession with running back Najeeb Smith breaking free on runs of 20 and 32 yards before scoring on a 6-yard run with 9:38 left in the first quarter.
Smith led Ft. White with 150 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 14 carries.
A Keystone five-yard punt set up Ft. White’s second score.
From the Keystone 24, Smith ran off tackle to his right for a 12-yard gain to the 12. He then repeated the off-tackle rush for another six yards, losing his helmet in the process. After sitting out one play, in which Ft. white was penalized 15 yards for a personal foul, Smith returned to the field for a second touchdown, darting off left tackle and avoiding two Keystone defenders for an 18-yard scoring run. The extra point put Ft. White up by 14 with 8:30 left in the third quarter.
Clayton Philpot set up Ft. White’s third score with a 38-yard completion to Tafari Moe midway through the fourth quarter. On the next play, Smith reached the goal line on a 10-yard sprint to the right sideline, but a holding penalty nullified the score and pushed Ft. White back to the 25. Penalties on both squads advanced and pushed back the ball until on third-and-nine from the nine, Smith scored his third touchdown with 4:21 left in the game.
Ft. White recovered a dropped snap on Keystone’s subsequent drive, taking over on Keystone’s 22.
Three plays later Smith beat the Keystone defense to the right sideline from five yards out for his fourth touchdown, and with the point after touchdown, gave Ft. White its 28-0 win with 1:14 left in the game.
Cartez Daniels led Keystone in rushing with 55 yards on 12 carries. Trey Jeffries ran for eight yards on three carries, and Ben Ulsch and Bryar Schenck had six yards each on six carries. Darrion Grady also had a kickoff return of 25 yards.
Ben Ulsch led the Indians in tackles with eight, followed by Bo Overton with seven stops and Wyatt Van Zant, Reid Begue and Trey Jeffries with six tackles each.
Keystone opens its home schedule Friday night with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff against Jacksonville’s Impact Christian Academy. The Lions will bring a 1-1 record to Keystone with a 38-22 opening win against Trenton’s Riverside Christian and a 20-6 loss to Jacksonville’s Harvest Community.
