Cardinal Mooney High football beats Booker High in preseason clash

In a tune-up before regular season play begins next week, the Cardinal Mooney High and Booker High football teams showed plenty of firepower, and plenty to fix, when the programs played each other Friday night. 

Ultimately, Mooney left the field with a 45-32 victory. But it being the preseason, the Cougars and Tornadoes both showed enough to make future opponents nervous. And they did it in front of a special guest: NCAA National Championship-winning coach Urban Meyer, who took in the game from Mooney's east end zone. 

Mooney opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 35-yard passing touchdown from junior quarterback Devin Mignery to junior receiver Rymen Mosley. In the second quarter, the Cougars extended their lead with a pass from Mignery to senior Marcus Galloway. Booker would respond with a long pass from junior quarterback Joel Morris to junior receiver Dylan Wester. 

The two teams would continue to trade blows from there. Though the offenses woke up in the game's second half, it was a special teams play that opened the most eyes, as Booker freshman Tyree Mannings Jr. took a Mooney kickoff 99 yards for a score. 

Both teams will likely work on limiting snapping mistakes in practice next week; the Tornadoes and Cougars each had several poor snaps that either ended promising drives, gave the other team good field position or, in the case of one Booker snap that flew past the Tornadoes' punter, resulted in a safety. 

Mooney will play at Sarasota High at 7:30 p.m. next Friday to begin its regular season, while Booker will host Lely High at 7:30 p.m.