Second-half sting: Bishop Moore ground game decides first-round playoff at Bishop Kenny

The score was tied and the miscues were mounting.

That's when Bishop Moore decided the time was right for a steady dose of power football, the right prescription for a battle of Bishops on the St. Johns River.

Power football meant a run of 21 unanswered Bishop Moore points, ending the season of Bishop Kenny 28-7 in Saturday night's Florida High School Athletic Association Region 1-2M quarterfinal at William H. Johnston Stadium.

Power football meant 284 rushing yards on 36 carries, with 237 of those yards amassed in the second half and most of those in the game's last 13 minutes.

Power football, for Bishop Moore running back Heath Hedrick, was just right.

"It's just a mentality thing," Hedrick said. "Every time I get the ball, I'm going to go as hard as I can."

Bishop Kenny, who won the District 2-2M title last month and overcame rival Bolles last year for the first time since 1977, can look back at a season of highlights.

But this contest under the Saturday night lights belonged to the visitors from Orlando, who advance to meet Bolles in Friday's regional semifinal.

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BISHOP MOORE RUSHERS STEP UP

For the first two and a half quarters, Bishop Moore's ground game showed few signs of growing into a game-deciding juggernaut.

The Hornets (8-3), District 4-2M champions, picked up only 47 yards rushing before halftime. But after Bishop Kenny knotted the scores at 7-7 midway through the third quarter — ending three drives by interception along the way — Bishop Moore shifted gears into pure power running.

Consecutive 18-yard rushes by Hedrick set the tone, and quarterback Riley Willis followed up with a 51-yard dash to the end zone, wheeling around the left end and outracing the Crusader defense across the goal line for a 14-7 lead.

Bishop Moore never relinquished it, driving sledgehammer blow after blow into the heart of the line and forcing a tiring Crusaders defense backward. Willis added his second touchdown on an 8-yard run early in the fourth quarter, and Hedrick put it away with a 2-yard score.

Hedrick finished with 117 yards on 17 carries, and Willis piled up 12 carries for 124.

"The O-line got some great push playing hard," Hedrick said. "Give all the credit to them. They stepped up."

BK DEFENSE STRONG EARLY

Bishop Kenny's defense did its part to keep the Crusaders (8-3) in the contest for a while, initially frustrating a quarterback in Willis who had been picked off only once all year.

The Crusaders halted three Bishop Moore drives on first-half interceptions by Jackson Burnett and Jayden Harris, although they failed to convert them into points, and Price Watson made a touchdown-saving pass breakup.

The third interception, when Reagan Johnson picked off Willis along the sideline in the third quarter, proved to be the charm for BK. One play later, Resar fired a quick slant to Harris and the receiver took it the rest of the way for a 52-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7.

The Hornets had struck first when Willis found Nolan Munroe with a 47-yard pass in the first quarter.

HORNETS SWARM AROUND RESAR

Bishop Moore's defensive strategy was simple enough: Fluster Iowa-committed quarterback Resar, the key to the BK offense with 1,812 passing yards on the season.

Resar produced a few highlights, including a couple of downfield strikes to J.P. Donovan and a roll-out rocket pass to Burnett, but spent much of his time trying to dodge the Hornets' rush. Bishop Moore defensive end Jake Kreul, who recorded a sack and a half and batted down a pass, led a pass rush that kept the Crusaders under steady pressure.

That pressure showed on the stat sheet for Resar, who completed 16 of 35 passes for 180 yards and only gained 16 yards on the ground. Harris led with six catches for 91 yards, joined by Donovan (four for 58) and Burnett (four for 28).

Second-half miscues also thwarted the Crusaders. A drive across midfield when a shotgun snap hit the man in motion and rebounded to the Hornets' Luke Allender, and Aaron Reabe leaped high in the line to pick off another Resar pass.

Still, after back-to-back playoff appearances, the future looks promising for Bishop Kenny. For 2023, the Crusaders are set to return not only quarterback Resar but also sophomore wideout Donovan and several key players on defense, including juniors Johnson, Nash Beenen and Kolbe Sexton.

Bishop Moore has now won its last six games with defense, holding its last five foes to a combined 35 points. Now, their running game has the confidence to match it.

"You win or you go home this late in the season," Hedrick said. "So week by week, we're just going to keep rolling."

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX, and sign up for the First Coast Varsity newsletter at https://profile.jacksonville.com/newsletters/first-coast-varsity/.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school football playoffs 2022: Bishop Kenny-Bishop Moore takeaways