Oak Hall found themselves in a rare situation during Friday night’s senior night matchup against P.K. Yonge.
After outscoring opponents 330-72 over their first six games this season, they found themselves down 8-0 at halftime.
Oak Hall coach R.J. Fuhr emphasized his team’s need to be tested at halftime, especially with the postseason around the corner.
“I said, ‘Guys, this is what we wanted,’” Fuhr said. “We didn’t want to be up 50-0 at the half. We wanted to be in a dogfight.”
The Eagles found their rhythm by shutting out the Blue Wave in the second half on their way to a 20-8 win.
Friday’s game wasn’t originally scheduled. P.K. Yonge was set to play St. Francis Catholic, and Oak Hall had Cedar Creek Christian slated. Instead, the teams swapped opponents, which set up a regular season matchup between the Eagles and the Blue Wave for the first time since 1985.
“(P.K. Yonge) gave up their homecoming game. I give a lot of credit to them, to Coach (Willie) Jackson. Not many teams do that,” Fuhr said.
Oak Hall fumbled twice at the start of the game in P.K. Yonge territory, and the Blue Wave fumbled once and threw an interception. Eagles defensive back Briggs Copeland intercepted a pass on the two-yard line, but the Blue Wave capitalized on the field position.
After Oak Hall punted from its own end zone, Blue Wave quarterback Lawrence Wright punched it in from two yards out and converted a two-point conversion for the game’s first points with 7:08 left in the first half.
Oak Hall had a scoring opportunity late in the half but turned the ball over on downs in the red zone.
“We had a great half. We’ve gotten into the red zone twice and didn’t score,” Fuhr said of his halftime message. “We just got to finish, just got to finish, and they came out and did that and had some big plays on defense.”
Dakota Brower had a 50-yard punt return touchdown to put Oak Hall on the board, and Abram Jerkins added two touchdowns to surge them to a win.
“Got to thank my offensive line,” Jerkins said. “(P.K. Yonge) were bigger than us by at least 200 pounds. I’ll give them donuts or something.”
P.K. Yonge falls to 3-4 and heads to Newberry next Friday.
“It’s a young team. We just have to keep playing,” said Jackson. “The message is you’ve got to learn how to win. It’s easy to lose, but we have to learn how to win. We have to learn how to win in tough situations.”
Oak Hall (7-0) travels to Master’s Academy (Oviedo) next Friday.
Friday, Oct. 13
Hawthorne 28, Union County (Lake Butler) 0
Newberry 38, Eastside 0
Oak Hall 20, P.K. Yonge 8
Buchholz 38, Oakleaf (Orange Park) 3
Matanzas (Palm Coast) 35, Gainesville 0
Trenton 40, Bronson 0
Fort White 35, Dixie County (Cross City) 0
Bradford (Starke) 24, True North Classical Academy (Miami) 13
St. Francis Catholic 44, Cedar Creek Christian (Jacksonville) 20
Columbia (Lake City) 17, Middleburg 6
Madison County 38, Suwannee (Live Oak) 13
Palatka 41, Keystone Heights 21
Interlachen 21, Bell 19
OFF – Chiefland, Santa Fe (Alachua), Williston
