JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The high school football state championships are this week in Miami. Two area teams will play for titles (Bolles and Raines). Here’s a glance at the 2A state championship game on Wednesday night.
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Class 2A state championship
Bolles (13-1) vs. Sarasota Cardinal Mooney (13-1)
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Pitbull Stadium, Florida International University.
Watch it: Game will be streamed on the NFHS Network. There is a cost to purchase a pass. You can find that link here.
Road here: Bolles beat Walton, 63-13; beat Florida High, 51-27; beat Pensacola Catholic, 44-10; beat Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons, 42-20; Cardinal Mooney beat North Broward Prep, 55-7; beat Bishop Verot, 51-14; beat Lakewood, 49-29; beat Cocoa, 40-0.
Glance: Is this the season Bolles ends its title drought? The Bulldogs last won a championship under iconic coach Corky Rogers in 2011. Since then, the Bulldogs have reached six title games and lost them all. Two of those have been under head coach Matt Toblin, who took the team to championship games in his first two seasons (2019-20). This has been Toblin’s best team without question. The Bulldogs have perhaps the state’s best running back in Xander Edwards and a college-quality offensive line (Andrew Smith, Caleb Barnmes, Ryan Ingram, Reid Koelbel, William Zebroski and JJ Barnes are the top six guys) that clears Honda-sized holes. Edwards has rushed for 2,532 yards and 44 TDs. Another big game against Mooney could put Edwards into the 2,700-yard territory ... rare air that would put him in the territory of players like Derrick Henry (2,610 yards in 2011 and 2,788 in 2010). Henry and former Sandalwood star Maurice Wells (3,075 yards in 2013) are the only two local players to reach 3,000 in a season. Edwards’ TD total is the most by a Jacksonville RB since University Christian’s Willie McClendon had 42 during the 1987 season. … QB Jaden Weatherly has been steady for the Bulldogs, completing 65% of his passes and throwing 23 TDs (to only 3 INTs). He’s also added six rushing TDs. His top two targets are Clemson signee Naeem Burroughs (1,151 yards, 15 TDs) and Cam Tietze (664 receiving yards, 11 TDs). Florida State signee at TE Corbyn Fordham has three TD grabs as well. … The offense has bullied teams at the line of scrimmage, but the defense is where Bolles has shown the most improvement. After getting raked defensively in a loss to St. Augustine, the Bulldogs tinkered with their scheme and have seldom been pushed since. DE Asher Ghioto is a backfield machine. He’s got 35 tackles for loss and a Bolles-record 23 sacks. He’s not alone on the line. James Gibbs and Chance Faucheaux have combined for 17 sacks and 27 tackles for loss. LB Christian Hayes is second on the team in tackles (86) behind Ohio State signee Simeon Caldwell (99) and has 15 for loss. CB Santana Starks leads the secondary with six interceptions. Bolles is really, really strong up front. … Mooney won the Class A state title in 1972 and then added a Class 1S state title in 2023. The Cougars lost in the state semifinals to Cocoa last year, then responded by destroying the Tigers (40-0) in the final four last week. They are very similar to Bolles, including a strong ground game led by junior RB Connail Jackson (2,253 rushing yards, 35 TDs). DB Vantrez Yarn has seven of the team’s 22 interceptions. Cardinal Mooney is similar to Bolles on defense, too. Three players, led by DL Elijah Gordon (14 sacks, 34 tackles for loss) have reached double figures in sacks. If Bolles can protect Weatherly and run the ball like it has all season, that’s the path to victory. But it’s one thing to say that and another to execute it against a team that has the defensive front that Cardinal Mooney does.
Quotable
“We have a saying within our program, ‘happy not satisfied.’ And you know, a lot of places, you’re trying to temper expectations, and so you’re like, be happy. But we’re not satisfied. Here, because the expectation is so high, it’s the ‘be happy.’ Probably by the time we took the picture [after the win], I was already like, all right, Cardinal Mooney’s really good. So it didn’t take long, especially because of the turnaround. … We actually started breaking down film that night. There was not a lot of time to soak it in and enjoy it.” — Bolles coach Matt Toblin (below).
“They’re a really good team. They have a lot of pieces everywhere. But you know, I just think we have to just stay true to ourselves, not let the moment get too big, you know? I know a lot of times in these games, people try to press and make a lot of mental mistakes. We just have to stay true to ourselves.” — Bolles LB Simeon Caldwell.
“I’ve been here four years, and two of the years, we made it to the final four and came up short. So, just finally being able to get past that milestone that I feel like we we’re kind of stuck at, I mean, it feels great.” — Bolles OL JJ Sparks.
“After the game, it really hit me when we took that picture in front of the scoreboard. How all our students showed out, parents were out there. Then there were lights and cameras everywhere. It was crazy. But I’m glad we won that game and now we’re on to the next.” — Bolles QB Jaden Weatherly.