Prep football: Kings' late touchdown sinks Community School

Kings conquer Community School

Kings rally from behind.

NAPLES — For whatever reason, Community School coach Damon Jones didn’t see the same intensity from his team Thursday night against Southwest Florida Christian that was present during its three-game winning streak.

Whether it was playing on a Thursday night or losing senior wide receiver/linebacker Neal Defossez to injury early, Jones couldn’t put his finger on it.

“They’re 15- and 16-year-old kids, if you can figure them out I’ll give you the Nobel Prize,” Jones said. “We just didn’t have it tonight. But you also have to give a lot of credit to (Southwest Florida Christian). They were physical and took it to us.”

The Kings (3-2, 2-2 2A-6) used a 1-yard touchdown plunge from quarterback Andrew Hall with less than two minutes to play to post a 21-17 district victory.

The winning score was set up by a beautiful 27-yard pass play from Hall to Colton Catto down the left sideline. Hall threaded the needle to Catto who nimbly kept himself inbounds for a crucial catch.

“That was a clutch catch right there,” Kings coach Mark Ackerman said. “I actually thought he was in the end zone, but Colton came up big for us tonight, as did most of our seniors. I challenged our seniors before the game to lead us, and they did a tremendous job.”

The Kings’ defense was outstanding in getting pressure on Seahawks quarterback Drew Tomaini. SFCA sacked Tomaini six times and forced him out of the pocket numerous times.

“Watching film, we were very impressed on how accurate (Tomaini) was,” Ackerman said. “We knew we needed to get some pressure on him and our line really came up with some big plays. Not only with the sacks, but we batted several balls down at the line and didn’t let him get comfortable.”

One Seahawk who was comfortable on offense was senior running back Mike Schoeller, who ran 16 times for 187 yards, including touchdowns of 59 and 50 yards that erased the Seahawks’ early 14-3 deficit. The first big run came on a draw with less than a minute to go in the first half, giving the Seahawks some much needed momentum going into halftime.

His score in the third quarter was even more impressive, as he seemed stopped at the line before bouncing left and rumbling down the sideline for the touchdown.

“Mike played great tonight and he showed his leadership,” Jones said. “With Mike’s knee injury, we’ve been limiting him on defense to keep him fresh on offense. But when Neal went down in the first quarter, he stepped up and told us he wanted to be in there (on defense) because he knew the team needed him.”

Community School (3-3, 1-3) saw its chances of making the playoffs take a major hit with Thursday’s loss. But Jones says his team has plenty to play for.

“First off, we’ve seen with this district that strange things happen every week,” Jones said. “Plus they schedule 10 games for a reason. We want to get better every week and we know we can play better than we played tonight.”

The Seahawks host district opponent Moore Haven next Friday night.