74-73: 10 years after Clay-Bishop Kenny high school football classic, memories never fade
Years after he left Green Cove Springs to range the outfield for the University of North Florida baseball, Wes Weeks never stopped hearing the questions about a different score, on a different field, in a different sport.
"I had former players at alumni weekend," Weeks said, "asking if I was the quarterback at that game."
The answer: Yes. He most definitely was.
Ten years ago to the day Wednesday, Clay and Bishop Kenny faced off in a second-round Florida High School Athletic Association football playoff that left behind shattered records, dizzy defenders, a thoroughly exhausted scoreboard at William A. Johnston Stadium and a final score that no one who watched will ever forget.
"That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing to be a part of," said Josh Hoekstra, who coached Clay to the Region 1-5A semifinal victory and now works as assistant athletic director at Bolles.
The festival of points along the St. Johns River was only part of the story, a game decided on Weeks' go-ahead dash to the pylon with 10 seconds left, a game that didn't officially enter the books until Clay defenders converged on Bishop Kenny receiver Charles Wade around the 20 as time expired.
The records. The highlights. The memories. For people like Ryan Wolfe, who directed the Blue Devils' offense that night, they aren't going away.
"That was the most fun game I've ever been a part of," said Wolfe, now head coach at Middleburg. "It was like an old heavyweight fight with guys throwing haymakers at each other for 15 rounds."
Nobody threw more haymakers, statistically speaking, than Bishop Kenny quarterback John Wolford. In his final game, the senior took down a host of school and state records. Somehow, it wasn't enough.
"The whole gamut of emotions, excitement, frustration," said Mark Thorson, who coached Bishop Kenny in the 2013 game and now serves as the school's athletic director. "At some point, you thought somebody would probably make a stop and nobody ever did. It just kind of came down to the very end, and they made one more play than we did."
JOHN WOLFORD REWRITES RECORD BOOK… AND LOSES
John Wolford was a man on a mission.
A starter at Bishop Kenny since his freshman year in 2010, and committed to East Carolina, the quarterback was not only leading the Crusaders in pursuit of the final four, but also closing in on two state records: the career passing yardage mark of 10,384, which belonged to Quentin Williams of Tampa Jefferson, and the combined rushing and passing touchdowns record of Tim Tebow at Nease.
Hoekstra knew Wolford's threat only too well. Bishop Kenny had beaten Clay in the regular season in each of Wolford's first three years — defeating the Blue Devils 22-21 on a touchdown pass as time expired as a freshman in 2010 and producing eight touchdowns in 2011. He had passed for a combined 762 yards and 10 touchdowns in those games.
"He played lights out against us his sophomore and junior years," Hoekstra said. "That kid had so much moxie. You could watch him running around, extend the play. He could do it all."
As it turned out, Wolford went on to finish the day with both of those records, and more. Twisting Clay's pass rush inside out, he carried the ball 17 times for 234 yards, and completed 25 of 36 passes for 539. Receivers Charles Wade, Will Parry and Anthony Farmand all surpassed triple figures.
Wolford's grand total: 773 total yards — beating the all-time single-game total then listed by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
"With him and Charles Wade, they were just dynamic," Thorson said. "I think [Clay] felt like every time we had the ball we were going to score."
CLAY COUNTERS ON THE GROUND
For every play that Wolford made, though, the Blue Devils matched him.
Clay turned loose its ground combination of 180-pound Bilal Ally (20 carries for 187 yards) and 215-pound power back Shannon Asbell (19 carries for 143 yards) behind a bruising offensive line.
The starting front included two future Division I signees, tackle Zach Baker at Duke and center Nick George at UCF, and for Hoekstra, the linemen were the unsung heroes of the classic.
Fatigued and undersized on the defensive front, Bishop Kenny had no answer.
"They had two really talented running backs and we had a lot of kids that played both ways, so some of the same kids that were making big plays for us on offense had to turn around and be the guy that was making a tackle in space on a high-level running back," Thorson said.
Weeks joined the party. The quarterback, later a starting UNF outfielder who still ranks third in the Ospreys' Division I baseball history with 32 stolen bases, threw only nine passes but rushed for 161 yards.
With Weeks, Ally and Asbell all above the 140-yard mark, the Blue Devils' numbers, too, started to soar into the stratosphere. Clay racked up 638 total yards, 489 of them on the ground. The points were climbing.
"A roller-coaster type of feeling, ups and downs," Thorson said. "You're excited on offense, and then on defense, you're back to the bottom of the ride."
THE FRANTIC FINISH
Four Wolford touchdown passes, three to Wade, propelled Bishop Kenny to a 33-22 halftime lead. Down two scores, Clay maintained its resolve.
"Our defensive coordinator, Jay Stilianou, made an awesome halftime speech," Weeks said. "We thought if our defense got a stop, we could make it happen, and there was no doubt in our minds we were going to take that game home."
The Blue Devils struck back with three rapid-fire touchdown runs, the last a 61-yarder for Weeks, sandwiched around a Wolford run for a 44-40 advantage. But Wolford fired scoring passes on three consecutive drives — the last to Parry to surpass Tebow's touchdown mark — and the Crusaders ended a 49-point third quarter with a 60-44 lead.
Game over? Not at all.
"We were pumped up because it was a blow-for-blow kind of game," Wolfe said.
Freshman corner Colin Wilson picked off a pass to halt a BK drive at the 29, and Clay took advantage. Asbell and Ally ran for scores, both followed by two-point conversions, to tie it, 60-60. Wolford and Asbell traded touchdowns, with Clay converting another two-point play to seize the lead with 4:26 to play. Wolford, undeterred, led the Bishop Kenny back, scrambling 58 yards into the red zone and then sneaking across the goal line for his 10th and final touchdown and a 73-68 advantage. Only 1:54 remained.
Yet, that time was enough. Weeks — the senior described himself as "the happiest kid alive right now" after the victory — marched the Blue Devils upfield and rounded right end from 10 yards with 10 seconds to go.
"The play was supposed to be a pass," Weeks said. "I had two reads on the play, and if our slot receiver [J.T. Turner] was covered, I'd have about 10 to 15 yards that I could run."
But was it enough?
"If [Wolford] had the ball with even one second left," Weeks said, "I was still worried."
With 73 yards to cover in 10 seconds, Wolford still nearly saved the Crusaders. He found Parry at the 45 and the receiver stepped out of bounds at the :01 mark. Instead of a heave to the end zone, Bishop Kenny called a pass to Wade on the right sideline in the open field. Even on Wade's career night (10 catches, 253 yards), the Blue Devils slammed the door at 11:00 p.m. and ended three and a half hours of marathon football.
Bishop Kenny finished with 11 touchdowns to Clay's 10, but conversions — four missed Bishop Kenny conversion attempts (three kicks, one pass) and five successful two-point rushes by Clay's Asbell — tipped the balance.
"I don't know if we played another hour if it would've kept going the same way," Thorson said. "At some point you think somebody would turn the ball over or have a fumble or throw an interception or something that turns that game. And it never really happened."
CLAY-BISHOP KENNY: THE EPILOGUE
Wolford had ended his high school career with what may be the greatest performance in defeat in Jacksonville football history.
"Things were happening so fast that it didn't even really register," Thorson said. "Then when I saw some articles written about it and saw what those totals were, it's amazing just the kind of things he did.
"They just kept making big play after big play. They weren't 8-yard runs [for Clay], they were 60-yard runs, and we had 60-yard pass plays."
The word of Wolford's feats spread far — ESPN and MaxPreps were just a few of the outlets recounting his stats — and his story was far from over.
By December, he had flipped his commitment from East Carolina to Wake Forest. He won the starting job as a true freshman and played four seasons of ACC football, tallying 8,794 yards passing and 59 touchdowns to rank in the Demon Deacons' all-time top five in both categories.
He worked his way into the NFL as an undrafted free agent, winning a Super Bowl LVI ring with the Los Angeles Rams as backup to Matthew Stafford. He currently plays with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers behind starter Baker Mayfield, and could face the Jaguars when the Florida teams collide on Christmas Eve.
Clay, having proved their mettle in the victory, didn't slow down in the later rounds of the FHSAA playoffs.
"For us to score that many points [52] in the second half, it goes back to how in shape and how mentally tough they were," Hoekstra said.
Clay beat Pensacola Catholic the next week, a polar-opposite game that finished 9-7. They then topped St. Petersburg Lakewood 40-38, before the dream ended in a 66-8 final loss to a steamroller Plantation American Heritage team that fielded future NFL players like Sony Michel and Isaiah McKenzie.
A few Blue Devils, including two-way back Wilson and Ally, made another deep postseason excursion two years later, when Ally rushed for a state playoff record 496 yards against North Marion on the way to the state semis.
Whatever their future feats, players and coaches on both teams will always own a one-of-a-kind place in Northeast Florida's football history.
"People still come up to me saying, 'Man, that was a great game,'" Wolfe said. "It's crazy how people remember that, how our offense played, how John Wolford played."
CLAY 74, BISHOP KENNY 73
Clay;8;14;22;30;--;74
Bishop Kenny;19;14;27;13;--;73
BK - Parry 47 pass from Wolford (kick failed)
C - Turner 9 run (Asbell run)
BK - Wade 23 pass from Wolford (kick failed)
BK - Wade 89 pass from Wolford (Langlois kick)
C - Ally 3 run (Esquivel kick)
BK - Wade 15 pass from Wolford (Langlois kick)
C - Asbell 12 run (Esquivel kick)
BK - Singletary 3 run (Langlois kick)
C - Asbell 27 run (Esquivel kick)
C - Asbell 6 run (Asbell run)
BK - Wolford 30 run (Langlois kick)
C - Weeks 61 run (Esquivel kick)
BK - Singletary 9 pass from Wolford (kick failed)
BK - Parry 38 pass from Wolford (Langlois kick)
BK - Parry 19 pass from Wolford (Langlois kick)
C - Asbell 5 run (Asbell run)
C - Ally 39 run (Asbell run)
BK - Wolford 17 run (Langlois kick)
C - Asbell 19 run (Asbell run)
BK - Wolford 1 run (pass failed)
C - Weeks 10 run (run failed)
Team statistics
First downs: Clay 30, Bishop Kenny 33. Rushes-yards: Clay 60-489, Bishop Kenny 29-295. Passing yards: Clay 149, Bishop Kenny 539.
Individual leaders
RUSHING - Clay: Ally 20-187, Weeks 16-161, Asbell 19-143. Bishop Kenny: Wolford 17-234, Singletary 9-47.
PASSING - Clay: Weeks 8-9-0-149. Bishop Kenny: Wolford 25-36-2-539.
RECEIVING - Clay: Turner 5-90. Bishop Kenny: Wade 10-253, Parry 7-173, Farmand 7-104.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Clay 74, Bishop Kenny 73: High school football classic anniversary
