SCARBOROUGH — Scarborough’s Keegan Weed came in cold, but heated up quickly Friday evening at the Kippy Mitchell Sports Complex.
Weed, who didn’t start for the Red Storm against Sanford, was pressed into emergency duty at quarterback with his team already down, 7-0, and threw a touchdown pass on his first snap. He fired three more scoring strikes over the course of the evening and paced Scarborough (4-2) to its third consecutive victory, 49-13.
“I played the first three games and have a great quarterback ahead of me who has given me great advice,” said Weed, who threw for 204 yards and rushed for 117 more. “I was a little nervous at first, but that first score helped settle me down.”
Sanford (3-3) chewed up nearly eight minutes on an opening drive which included three first downs and culminated with a 1-yard touchdown run from Jordan Bissonette. The rest of the first half, however, belonged to Scarborough.
The Red Storm, playing without standout receiver Jayden Flaker (upper body injury), marched to the Spartans’ 44 before starting quarterback Sam Rumelhart had to leave the game with an injured ankle.
Weed then threw a screen pass to Griffin Denbow, who took it to the end zone and even though the extra point failed, Scarborough was right back in the game.
Then, after a Ryan Kelly interception, the Red Storm took the lead for good early in the second quarter when Denbow scored on a 4-yard rush to make it 12-7.
After a Spartans fumble, Weed threw his second touchdown pass, a 32-yarder to Charlie Murray, then he hit Quinn Fogarty for the two-point conversion pass.
After another Sanford fumble, Weed and Murray connected again, this time from 14-yards out and Weed added the two-point rush.
Then, just before halftime, on 4th-and-10, Weed found Denbow in the back of the end zone for a 32-yard score and a commanding 35-7 advantage at the break.
The Weed to Murray connection hooked up once more in the third quarter, as the receiver dove for a 15-yard score, momentarily inducing a running clock.
“I have a lot of trust in my receivers,” Weed said. I grew up with Charlie Murray and this was just like eighth grade.”
Early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans answered, as Bissonette scored from a yard out, but a 9-yard run from Tim Crockett finished it off.
“Our athletes and our conditioning took over,” said Scarborough Coach Packy Malia. “Keegan got a lot of time earlier in the year with Sam out and he sure looked comfortable back there tonight.”
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