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Saturday's high school football roundup

By Daily Commercial, 09/07/16, 3:45PM EDT

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Mout Dora Christian Academy 27, Ocala Christian 8

For the players who went through last year’s winless season with Mount Dora Christian Academy, Saturday had been a long time coming.

 
 
 

The Bulldogs brought a 10-game regular season losing streak to a resounding end with a dominating 27-8 victory over Ocala Christian at MDCA on Saturday. The Bulldogs got two touchdowns from Jasper Pierre and one each from Chris Conway and Tyler Allen while running their record to 1-1.

“I think we found our identity today with our offense,” MDCA coach Jim Nichols said. “I think our defense is going to be good this year and put us in good positions to put the ball in the end zone.

“We played a really good first half and then we lost our momentum a little in the second half with the rain and a 30-minute delay.”

MDCA’s defense was led by sophomore Jesiah Pierre, a University of Miami commit.

“It’s fun to watch him play because he’s got so much potential,” Nichols said.

The win was particularly important for MDCA because it puts the Bulldogs at 1-0 in the Coral North Florida division of the Sunshine State Athletic Conference.

“It’s our first game back in the conference and our goal is to win our conference,” Nichols said.

MDCA plays a non-conference game on Friday when the Bulldogs host Halifax Academy at 7 p.m.

First Academy Leesburg 42, Bishop Snyder 6

First Academy of Leesburg came out of a season-opening 7-6 loss looking for answers on offense. The Eagles, despite a strange week of practice because of the weather, found plenty of those answers Saturday.

With junior quarterback Caleb Lynum accounting for six touchdowns, the Eagles rolled to a 42-6 win over Jacksonville Bishop Snyder on Saturday at Sleepy Hollow Recreation Complex.

Lynum completed 15-of-27 passes for 213 yards with four touchdowns and added 69 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries in the win. Desmond Harris had two touchdown receptions, including one that covered 82 yards. Harris finished with three catches for 98 yards.

“It was exciting to be able to do some things that had kind of been exposed the week before,” First Academy coach Sheldon Walker said. “We lost a couple of days of practice to the weather but the players were intelligent about it. They wanted to learn instead of slacking off this week.”

First Academy continued its strong defensive play from week one, led by junior linebacker Tommy Lea. Lea finished with 11 tackles, including four tackles for a loss. Junior linebacker Tyas Dixon added eight tackles while sophomore Sammy Punt added nine tackles and an interception.

The Eagles (1-1) travel to Wildwood on Friday for a 7 p.m. game.

St. John Lutheran 30, Wildwood 12

The time to just be happy to be playing again has passed for Wildwood. Now the Wildcats are looking for better results.

Wearing down in the second half and making all kinds of mistakes on offense, Wildwood fell 30-12 to St. John Lutheran on Saturday.

Wildwood did manage to lead 12-6 at halftime, as it took advantage of two turnovers, including a fumble returned 46 yards for a touchdown by Ronnie Mitchell.

“In the first half our defense was looking dominant,” Wildwood co-head coach Fred Anderson said. “Garrion Corbin’s name was heard all game long and he played a great game. But our offense kept shooting itself in the foot. In the second half we were making stupid mistakes. We had chances to put the game out of reach by going up two or three touchdowns and we shot ourselves in the foot.

“For the first two weeks we’ve beaten ourselves more than the other team has. It can’t get worse so we have to get better.”

The Saints scored 24 points over a span of 4:15 overlapping the final two quarters to rally for the win.

"Even with everything that went on this week our guys still came to work," said St. John coach Carlos Burrows, who took over as head of the program earlier this week after the resignation of former head coach Chris Martin. "These guys have a special bond. We are a family. No one cares who gets the credit. They just want to win."

St. John outgained Wildwood 370-72 for the game and gave up just 1 yard on 20 offensive plays in the second half.

Wildwood (0-2) returns to action when it hosts First Academy of Leesburg on Friday night at 7.