BRADENTON -- The first in-person meeting between Tod Creneti and Greg Williford was only supposed to last a few minutes.

Williford had spent parts of four years coaching at Braden River and Bayshore before he finally called up Creneti at the suggestion of a mutual acquaintance. After a brief phone call, Creneti told Williford to come by his office at Saint Stephen's Episcopal School.

Williford had more than 20 years of head coaching experience, so he feels he's generally able to pick out a relationship that will work. That brief 2014 meeting ended up lasting upward of an hour as the two picked each other's brains about football. A few days later there was another phone call. The final piece of the Falcons' now-prolific offense was in place.

"We had the same philosophy. It just was a good marriage," said Williford, who is now in his second season as Creneti's offensive coordinator. "We think exactly alike.

"I don't remember exactly how it happened. ... It was only supposed to last a few minutes and it just lasted forever."

The spring of 2014 marked the transformation of Saint Stephen's from a rebuilding project into a budding Sunshine State Athletic Conference power. That spring Creneti found a new offensive coordinator and a prodigious freshman quarterback. It's Year 2 now and the Falcons have run for 1,080 yards in three games, lead the area in total offense and have a scoring average better than any FHSAA affiliated team in the state. They're off to a 3-0 start in their division, including a 53-point performance against defending champion Windermere Prep.

This all comes just four seasons after Saint Stephen's,

which now plays in the SSAC Coral Bay division, went 0-10. Even last season, Saint Stephen's managed a .500 record in division play with a freshman quarterback while averaging 28.3 points per game. The foundation was in place for Saint Stephen's ascension to the top of the conference.

It began when Fred Billy decided to transfer to the school for the second semester of his eighth-grade year. Creneti had heard about Billy's success as a running back and wide receiver for the Pop Warner Manatee Mustangs and wanted to find a place for him as a focal point of the offense.

"We didn't have a quarterback on campus," Creneti said.

Billy at least had some football pedigree, which can't always be said for incoming Falcons.

Jake Westberry, a senior lineman with Division I interest, had never played football before he arrived on campus as a freshman. Athlete Jordon Murrell had shifted most of his attention to basketball before his freshman season. Freshman Destin Falls is now learning to be a wide receiver and outside linebacker despite a lack of football background, too.

"He wanted to be a quarterback," Creneti said of Billy. "He doesn't want to be seen as a guy who just lines up and runs around. He wants to be somebody who's regarded as a quarterback, not just an athlete. It's important to him."

Billy debuted in SSES' 2014 spring game still as a raw athlete without a refined throwing motion or experience under center. He started all 10 games for Saint Stephen's the following fall, throwing for more than 800 yards and rushing for more than 700. He contributed to 16 touchdowns with 10 through the air and six on the ground. The progression of the Falcons' offense begins with him going from good to great.

Already, the sophomore quarterback has connected for seven touchdown passes and five scoring runs. He's averaging nearly 20 yards per carry and after throwing nine interceptions last season, SSES has yet to commit a turnover in 2015.

"The goal we had was plus-10 turnover margin for the year," Westberry said. "We already have that."

Part of this success comes from Williford's varied ground attack Saint Stephen's is taking to in his second year. The Falcons have added a triple option to their wing T-heavy offense and will run quarterback traps for Billy out of a spread formation.

The scheme, Williford and Billy said, is simple and takes advantage of the team's deep stable of running backs, a quarterback who can pick out running lanes and Saint Stephen's undersized but athletic offensive linemen. Five Falcons have run for touchdowns behind a line which returns four starters from last year.

"It's old school, but we spread it out," Billy said. "We try to make it look new."

The Falcons were dealt their toughest test of 2015 in Week 1. A trip to Windermere gave Saint Stephen's a chance to avenge a 37-point loss to the Lakers the year before.

Windermere was the favorite in the conference and hung 41 points on Saint Stephen's again. The Falcons answered with 335 yards on the ground and 53 points.

"We came away from that feeling like a lot of the decisions and the work we'd done in the offseason had paid off," Creneti said. "For us to literally go out and outscore them, that showed our kids believe in what we're doing."