Well, the high school football regular season — at least down here in Florida — has come to a close.
That's right. Feels like we were just reigniting the stadium lights for the first time in August, and now we're off to the postseason. Time flies when you're having fun!
For anyone paying attention, you know this has been my Saturday routine for two months now.
FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME ERUPTS INTO VIOLENT BRAWL INVOLVING PLAYERS, COACHES AFTER FINAL WHISTLE
I've taken it upon myself here at OutKick to highlight at least one high school football play/ player/ story each and every weekend during the season. These guys are all about to be millionaires with the silly NIL rules, so we might as well get ahead of the curve and start identifying them early.
So far this year, we've seen a wild Hail Mary in Florida, an entire California team get suspended because the mascot shot the bird to some fans, a giant running back in Kentucky smashing heads, and perhaps the best running back in the nation out of Tennessee.
It's been quite a ride. I love Friday night lights — both the TV series and the actual game itself. Nothing beats high school football. In a world of NIL deals, it's the last pure form of amateur athletics left.
MENACING HIGH SCHOOL RUNNING BACK EXECUTES ONE OF THE MOST PUNISHING KICKOFF BLOCKS YOU WILL EVER WITNESS
Now, on the note, let's head out to Illinois, where two teams scored so many points in last night's playoff game, they had to move stadiums in the fourth quarter because of darkness.
True story:
Amazing. Goodness gracious, you're just not getting that sort of content at the college or pro level.
Well, scratch that, we used to get it once a week back in the "Pac-12 After Dark" days, but the NCAA took that from us. Crooks!
Anyway, back to this offensive explosion ... take a look at that box score! Take a look at these final stats, courtesy of Don O'Brien, who's head I imagine was SPINNING covering this game last night:
Chicago Goode's Aedan Cleveland finished with 322 rushing yards and five touchdowns. Those are Derrick Henry numbers back when he broke hearts at Yulee High School down here in Florida.
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Not to be outdone, Quincy signal-caller Bryson Little threw for 675 yards a state single-game record eight touchdown passes. He rushed for two more just for good measure.
There were, unofficially (because most stats in high school football are) over 1,400 yards of total offense between these two teams, which were originally scheduled to play on Saturday. The game was moved to Friday, and kicked off at 3 p.m. at Goode's field, which doesn't have lights.
Both defenses apparently didn't get the memo, and the lights became an issue late in the game. Refs decided to hit the pause button at 88-84 with just under four minutes left, and moved the game to a venue about five miles away.
POWERHOUSE COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM THROTTLES FCS TEAM SO VIOLENTLY, BOTH COACHES AGREED TO SHORTEN THE GAME
An hour later, play resumed. Shockingly, there wasn't another touchdown, and the game ended at a measly 172 total points.
What a game. What a night.
What a sport.