Bishop England drops gridiron opener to Oceanside in 2-day affair
Wed, 09/30/2020 - 8:26am
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By:
Philip M. Bowman
When you are a football coach and the ultimate family man like John Cantey, you are not going to have a long honey-do list.
But that doesn’t mean you’re not going to be busy.
Cantey, the Bishop England football coach, didn’t get a break over the weekend. On Friday, he had a full day at school as an algebra teacher and then led his Bishops into battle against Oceanside Collegiate Academy in the season-opener at Jack Cantey Stadium.
Lightning forced the game to be postponed until Saturday, which turned out to be a hectic day. Cantey was just lucky that his beloved Clemson Tigers had the weekend off.
Cantey led his Bishops through a morning walkthrough on Saturday, and then headed out with wife Haley to watch one of their children play soccer. Then it was time to watch another child to play flag football.
After that, he coached a flag football team that featured yet another child of the Canteys.
Finally, Cantey led the Bishops back on the field for the remainder of the game against OCA. The Land Sharks, who led 7-0 when the game was halted near the end of the first quarter, finished off the Battling Bishops with a 27-7 victory in a game that will go a long way in determining the Region 8-AAA champion.
“It rained all day and the field was a mess,” Cantey said. “But near game time, lightning became the issue. At first, it was way off in the distance. But then it was only seven miles away. That’s when it was time to shut it down.”
The Land Sharks, ranked No. 10 in the state Prep Football Media Poll, held the Bishops’ offense to 11 first downs, and that was the difference in the game, which marked the debut of Joe Call as the OCA coach. Call is the grandson of the all-time winningest coach in football history, John McKissick. Call followed his grandfather as the coach at Summerville.
The Bishops’ defense gave up only one touchdown as OCA scored a touchdown on defense, while Fletcher Files kicked two field goals and three PATs.
“I’m pretty proud of what we accomplished on defense,” Cantey said. “It seems like we gave them a short field the entire game, and we made a couple of mistakes on offense that led to points. We had no film on them, so we didn’t have that kind of preparation.
“They shut us down,” Cantey added. “We can play with them. We just have to get the offense on track.”
The Bishops’ only score came at the beginning of the third quarter. The Bishops recovered an onside kick and used the short field to their advantage, getting on the scoreboard when quarterback Eddie Marinaro scored on a plunge that cut the lead to 10-7. But the
Land Sharks pulled away to make Call’s debut a success.
The Bishops will host Academic Magnet Friday, while OCA plays North Charleston on Thursday.