Orlando Christian Prep

ORLANDO -- (via Media Reports) The 2021 OCP Warriors have had to overcome quite a few obstacles at the start of the season on their path to the first win of the season, and Monday night's rescheduled game against The First Academy was no different.  OCP scored the game-winning touchdown with 40 seconds to play to defeat TFA 14-7 and improve to 1-1 on the season.

The game was originally scheduled to be the Warriors home opener on Friday September 10th, but due to inclement weather affecting the field conditions, school administrators from TFA and OCP agreed to move the game to Monday night at TFA, who play games on field turf.

The change of venue and date didn't affect the Warriors' ability to dominate the total yardage count and make timely defensive stops when needed.  OCP outgained the Royals 252-180 total yards.

After recovering a fumble on TFA's opening drive of the game that was into its 14th play, the Warriors would put together an 11-play, 68-yard drive that would be punctuated by junior Brian Thomas' short touchdown run to go up 6-0 early in the 2nd quarter.

Trailing 7-6 in the fourth quarter, the OCP defense came up with a huge stop on 4th down and forced a turnover on downs with 4:45 to play on the OCP 40.

Junior quarterback VIlay Nakkoun, Jr and sophomore Demarion Jenkins would connect on three consecutive passes to move the Warriors into TFA territory as time ticked off the clock.

Nakkoun would later run 14-yards to the TFA 1-yard line to setup the quarterback keeper in the middle of the field and OCP's go-ahead touchdown. He also kept the ball in his hands on the 2-point conversion to give OCP a 7-point winning margin.

Monday night's win was the first win for the OCP program as a FHSAA playoff eligible team.  The Warriors moved from the Sunshine State Athletic Conference in the spring of 2021 where they won two of the last three state championships, played in three consecutive championship games, and made a total of five championship appearances in eight seasons under head coach Guershom Demosthenes.

The victory was a satisfying outcome for the Warriors who have had to overcome schedule changes that forced an unplanned bye for Week 1 of the regular season following their preseason contest against Hawthorne in mid-August, players and coaches missing time away from the team for health-related causes, and losing the first regular season game to Lake Highland Prep due to several turnovers and miscues.

Another result of those schedule changes have given the Warriors another bye for Week 4 of the season after a previously scheduled opponent had to cancel the game.  The next game for OCP will be home at Warrior Field on Friday, September 24 against Seffner Christian, 7pm kickoff.

Congratulations on win number one this season, Warriors!