Prep football: St. John Neumann shuts outs Out-of-Door in preseason game

LAKEWOOD RANCH --  On his third walk back to the Out-of-Door Academy gym before his team had run a snap that counted, St. John Neumann High School head coach Damon Jones joked that football season should start in November.

At least it sounded like he was joking.

Last year, in Jones' first season, the Celtics' season opener was postponed by the typical Florida-in-August storms.

On Friday, a thunderstorm that lingered just south of the Out-of-Door Academy campus in Lakewood Ranch in the early evening chased teams inside multiple times as they attempted to warm up for a preseason classic game. However, it never moved overhead, leaving the field pristine but players and coaches frustrated.

The same fits and starts plagued St. John Neumann once the game began as well, although Jensen Jones and the defense did enough to deliver a 26-0 victory against ODA.

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"We have a lot of young kids; we even started freshmen," Jones said after a wide-ranging postgame talk that touched on such basics as postgame laundry instructions for his young charges. "This is what the kickoff classic is for. It is hard to replicate the tempo and the excitement that exists in the game. There is a lot of chaos, guys going in and out, that is hard to replicate in practice. But all the stuff that went wrong tonight is fixable stuff."

Jensen Jones, the coach's son who was making his first start at quarterback, ran for 133 yards on 19 carries, including a touchdown, and passed for 108 (9 for 18 with 2 touchdowns and an interception). The defense held the Thunder to two first-half first downs (six overall) and 62 first-half yards.

The Celtics led 14-0 at the half, but their own mistakes -- wrong routes, alignment issues and penalties -- cost them a bigger lead and gave the coaching staff plenty of material to work with ahead of next week's season opener.

"We would recover from our mistakes by coming out and making a defensive turnover, or making a long touchdown pass, or going on a long drive. I thought we made some real nice plays on offense, and the defense did great tonight. We had moments where we played real well, but we couldn't sustain them. But, it is all fixable stuff."

Although most of last year's starters were underclassmen, there are only eight seniors and 10 juniors on the roster. In addition, Abe Metelus, the expected starter at running back and cornerback did not play because of a nagging injury. The result was a lot of young players getting action.

"That's the key at this level, develop some depth," Jones said. "We played a ton of guys at the skill positions."

That development turned the second half into a glorified drill session as the Celtics ran basically three plays -- over and over because they weren't executing.

They had the luxury thanks to a 9-yard touchdown pass to Nyre Handy in the first quarter and a 28-yard scoring strike to Oliver Wasem in the second.Jenson JOnes scored on a 6-yard run in the third and Eddy Garcon score on an 80-yard run in the closing minutes.

St. John Neumann 26, Out-of-Door Academy 0

SJA   7 7 6 6 -- 26

ODA   0 0 0 0 -- 0

First quarter

SJN -- Nyre Handy 9 pass from Jensen Jones (Oliver Wasem kick) 4:44

Second quarter

SJN -- Wasem 28 pass from Jones (Wasem kick) 2:45

Third quarter

SJN -- Jones 6 run (kick blocked) 2:21

Fourth quarter

SJN -- Eddy Garcon 60 run (kick failed) 11:52