High School

High school football ref throws key block on long touchdown run in Florida

Berkeley Prep's Joseph Troupe scores on an 86-yard run after an official collides with a Clearwater Central Catholic defender

Gary Adornato

As this screen capture from a video highlight produced by Legendary Productions illustrates, the last defender capable of making a play on Joseph Troupe's 86-yard touchdown in last week's season-opening football game between Clearwater Central Catholic and Berkeley Prep was shielded by an official , freeing Troupe to go the distance. CCC, however, shook off the play and went on to defeat the 2023 state champs, 28-14.
As this screen capture from a video highlight produced by Legendary Productions illustrates, the last defender capable of making a play on Joseph Troupe's 86-yard touchdown in last week's season-opening football game between Clearwater Central Catholic and Berkeley Prep was shielded by an official , freeing Troupe to go the distance. CCC, however, shook off the play and went on to defeat the 2023 state champs, 28-14. /

Week 1 of the Florida high school football season wasn't necessarily kind to the Berkeley Prep football team, which is coming off a state championship season in 2023. The Buccaneers lost their season opener, 28-14, to Clearwater Central Catholic, but they did come away with one sensational highlight.

Trailing 14-7 in the third quarter, the Buccaneers handed the ball to running back Joseph Troupe who burst through the line and into the CCC secondary. Under a full head of steam, Troupe would likely have gone the distance on his 86-yard touchdown run, but his path to the end zone was completely cleared when the back judge found himself in the path of the Marauders only defender with a chance to chase down Troupe.

The glancing contact was just enough to end any chance of making a play.

Clearwater Central Catholic, to its credit, closed the game with two unanswered touchdowns and took the season opening win. The Marauders will attempt to go 2-0 when they host Seabring on Friday night, while Berkeley will play its home opener against Booker in search of its first win of 2024.

SBLIVE SPORTS LAUNCHES HIGH SCHOOL ON SI

High School On SI will serve as the premier destination for high school sports fans, delivering unparalleled coverage of high school athletics nationwide through in-depth stories, recruiting coverage, rankings, highlights and much more. The launch of a dedicated high school experience expands Sports Illustrated’s reach to even more local communities as fans can now truly follow athletes from “preps to the pros” on a single platform, bringing them closer to the action than ever before.

For more information, visit si.com/high-school.

Published |Modified
Gary Adornato

GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University, and in 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.

Home/Florida