Oak Hall Drops 50 Points On Interlachen

Dakota Brower, Aaron Akins and Briggs Copeland each scored three touchdowns Friday to lead Oak Hall against Interlachen, 50-28, at Oak Hall Stadium.

Brower Is Back

Brower, Oak Hall’s starting quarterback, missed the first five games of the season with a broken collarbone. In his first game back last week, Brower had 312 passing yards and four touchdowns.

Friday, Brower did more than throw for two passing touchdowns and rush for a touchdown on offense. The senior, who is committed to Penn, also had a fumble recovery on defense and even made seven extra points as a kicker.

Dakota Brower’s dad is first-year coach Randy Brower, who has been with Oak Hall (4-3) for five years. 

“We’ve got Dakota back so we are a pretty explosive offense with that kid,” Randy Brower said. “Now that he’s back we expect big scores … it’ll be fun to watch.”

Dakota Brower is used to playing offense and special teams, but his dad said it was a surprise to see him on defense.

“We didn’t plan on putting him on defense but they had some 6-foot-4 receivers — two of them — that are big bodies and fast … we needed him out there to stop that. He played smart and didn’t get injured so it was a great day to walk off the field.”

It doesn’t matter that Randy Brower is Dakota’s dad. Any coach would have something special to say about their quarterback after a performance like that.

“He’s a gameday player … you’ll never see a player on a game that gives out more than he does. He’s 100 percent. When he’s fully healthy, he’ll play all three sides of the ball every play. He’ll never get tired … he just goes, goes, goes. On gameday you want him on your side.”

Maybe it’s because he is Dakota’s dad, meaning he gets to see more than the average coach does, but he added “he is a coach’s nightmare in one way, but he is a coach’s dream when it comes to gameday.”

Dakota embraces playing on both sides of the ball.

“I love it,” he said. “I want to be on the field as much as possible. So playing on both sides of the ball comes natural to me and I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

Penn commit Dakota Brower throws a short passing touchdown to Aaron Akins, who recorded an interception on the prior possession. Oak Hall leads Interlachen 14-0 with 2:10 remaining in the first quarter. @ESPNGainesville pic.twitter.com/t5hBcaIV9N

— Isaac Edelman (@IsaacEdelman) October 4, 2024

Akins Can Also Do It All

Like Brower, Akins is a star on both sides of the ball. The junior had two receiving touchdowns and a rushing touchdown. But that wasn’t all he did. Akins had an interception in the first quarter.

“Aaron is an amazing athlete who needs to play at the next level,” Randy Brower said. “He’s a fantastic athlete. So smooth.”

It’s a team thing, Akins said.

“It was a great feeling to score three touchdowns,” he said. “I did my job for the team and that’s all I can say. A playmaker got to make plays on both sides of the ball … so I did just that. It was a great team win. Everyone did their job, everyone worked together and the chemistry was there.”

Brower and Akins were honored at halftime for being on Homecoming court.

What a play!

Oak Hall quarterback Dakota Brower rolled out of the pocket to find Aaron Akins in the back of the endzone for a touchdown.

The Eagles lead 28-14 with less than a minute remaining in the first half. pic.twitter.com/DSt3ufan5d

— Isaac Edelman (@IsaacEdelman) October 5, 2024

Not Enough For Interlachen

A 22-point loss doesn’t look good on the stat sheet, but the Rams (2-5) showed positive signs on offense. When Interlachen was down 21-0 in the first half, the Rams scored 14 unanswered points thanks to a rushing touchdown from Raszir Phelps, a recovered onside kick and a 30-yard touchdown reception from Kaleb McKinnon on a beautiful 50/50 ball from Ben Aguayo. Phelps scored a second touchdown on an 81-yard play later in the game.

Looking Ahead

The Eagles will travel to Jacksonville to face Hollis Christian Academy (1-6) on Friday. Meanwhile, the Rams will play a district opponent in Bell on the road.

“Well, now that Dakota is back, I expect that we win our regular-season games,” the coach said. “I know that we got a top-10 team in St. Joseph in two weeks. The game after that is a 5A or 6A school with Lake Weir, which is a big school. Big schools have big players and big players always give us a hard time because we don’t have big players … we have fast players but not big players.

“So, the rest of the season if we click and have some discipline, which is a big thing that we try to hit on in practice, we should win out.”

Akins also has a similar goal in mind.

“We expect to win out,” he said. “We’ll be 7-3 by then and get a good spot in the playoffs. It’ll be great.”

Aaron Akins has three touchdowns on the night (two rushing TD’s). Oak Hall leads Interlachen 35-14 with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter. pic.twitter.com/APoFA1OGnp

— Isaac Edelman (@IsaacEdelman) October 5, 2024