(This story has been updated to add new information and to add a photo.)
With the clock and the scoreboard against them with seven minutes remaining, White needed a superstar.
Or a superhero.
“Like my dad told me always, ‘You’ve got to be Batman when the lights come on,'” Commanders quarterback King Boylston said. “I had to take over.”
Directing a 92-yard go-ahead drive that rapidly blasted open the fourth-quarter floodgates, Boylston and his Commander teammates flipped the switch and turned a nail-biter into a 48-21 high school football triumph over Atlantic Coast in a Gateway Conference matchup on Oct. 3.
Down 21-20, White surged for four touchdowns in the span of four minutes and 29 seconds to turn the game upside down.
It wasn’t a flawless night for the Commanders — four turnovers, five fumbles (two lost), a punt block allowed and 14 enforced penalties for 120 yards.
But on a game of two sharply different halves, one dry and one a near-monsoon, Friday might have been just what White (5-1) needed to erase the pain of a blown 17-point lead and a 52-49 loss to Merritt Island on Sept. 26.
“We took a loss that we didn’t plan on taking,” senior safety Julian Holt said. “So we had to come back with a different mindset, a different mentality.”
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COMMANDERS’ POWER PAVES PATH
When the heavens opened, the Commanders were ready.
“We had this same situation when it started pouring in practice on Tuesday,” Commanders coach Lawrence Johnson said. “We stayed out there. We don’t go in. We knew there was a possibility that it might be wet on Friday, so we were prepared.”
Whatever the weather, White’s power ground game is no secret. The Commanders already entered the night with 1,363 yards rushing (more than 270 per game) and 21 touchdowns in their first five games. When Boylston and company opened the fourth quarter, trailing by a point and backed up to their own 8, those rushers really showed their talents.
The ensuing 92-yard march took more than a dozen plays and over four minutes, capped with Boylston’s 20-yard go-ahead rush for his second touchdown of the game. Later touchdowns by Rontrez Loyd (his third) and Joseph Williams (his first), with an assist from a surprise onside kick scooped up by Gavyn Dalton, put the game away.
Behind a powerful offensive front and fullback Marion Laguerre, Boylston finished with 77 yards rushing, while Loyd (84), Williams (68) and Khaleb Mitchell (45) pushed the Commanders well over the 200-yard mark once more.
“I feel like our running backs, we have the best trio in the city,” Boylston said.
STINGRAYS FIND SPECIAL TEAMS SPARK
Following its opening drive, a march that ended in Rocco Manago’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Redding, Atlantic Coast (3-3) sputtered without a non-penalty first down for more than two quarters until special teams started to turn the balance.
Amid an all-out downpour, White muffed a punt, and Qwuame Green rushed for a 21-yard touchdown one play later to cut White’s lead to 20-14. Then Isaac Brundge applied a rare helmet block to a too-low Commander punt, and Green again followed with a 30-yard TD.
But after the Commanders’ fourth turnover, on the ensuing kickoff return, White regained its balance. The Commanders’ defense forced a punt and Atlantic Coast never again approached the end zone.
For a defense rocked by 52 points against Merritt Island, the strong finish was a confidence boost. Bowling Green commit Holt even applied the cherry on top with a late pick-six.
“We challenged our guys, and they came back and had just a phenomenal fourth quarter,” Johnson said.
WHITE PASS RUSH A THREAT
Once more: Watch out for the Commanders’ pass rush.
Entering the night, White had tallied 15 sacks in five games. They were on pace for even more than that on Friday, sacking Manago five times in the first half before the deluge reduced air-game production to near zero.
Josiah Smith was part of three of the Commanders’ sacks, adding to a fearsome front seven where Johnny Duckett and Mark Shiloh were nearly unblockable for stretches of the night.
“We’re a hard-hitting, fast-flying defense,” Holt said. “We came out to force turnovers.”
The biggest prizes are still to come. For the Stingrays, everything comes down to their Oct. 10 trip to Creekside, essentially a direct-elimination showdown for the District 1-7A championship. White, which next play at home against Sandalwood on Oct. 10, can formally nail down a playoff berth at rival Riverside on Oct. 24.
“We’re going for that state run this year, trying to do it all for our seniors,” Holt said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: ‘Batman’ at QB? How Ed White junior and ground game drive Commanders football forward
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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