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More St. John Neumann High

• VIDEO/PHOTOS: Prep football: Lely, Hall run away from St. John Neumann, 49-7
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• Prep golf: Aug. 28, 2008

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FORT MYERS — It didn’t take long for St. John Neumann sophomore quarterback Bobby Davis to break tackles and drop jaws during Friday night’s spring game at Bishop Verot.

Second play from scrimmage: Davis faked to his running back cousin, Jessie Davis, then broke right, fading wide before attacking the sideline and the befuddled Vikings, who finally caught him at their 48 after the 28-yard gain.

Next possession: Davis lofted a 25-yard beauty into the palms of Sonny Dillinger as he broke to the back of the end zone to start the scoring of St. John Neumann’s 24-21 win.

Davis hardly stopped there while running the no-huddle to near perfection for a full half and part of the third quarter. He led the Celtics in rushing, racing for 74 yards on eight carries all over Bishop Verot’s brand-new artificial turf. Davis also completed 3 of 4 passes for 74 yards, including a 38-yard, third-quarter strike to Dillinger.

“I couldn’t be happier with them,” said Celtics coach Steve Howey. “He showed a lot of poise leading the offense down the field in his first start.”

Davis returned a kickoff from the end zone 52 yards, intercepted a Butch Moore pass on his 20 — returning it 35 yards — and made several tackles.

Super soph? Seems so. But the quarterback had plenty of help. Jessie Davis racked up 40 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, Ed Sugrue had 59 yards on five totes, Brian Provost had a 19-yard bullish TD romp, and Dillinger played the part of go-to guy with three receptions for 74 yards.

Meantime, the Neumann defense mauled the Vikings, holding their starters to 96 total yards through the first half and part of the third quarter.

“Real happy with it,” Howey said. “Our first groups of offense and defense really played well.”

As the Class A Celtics showed in their domination of Class 2A Bishop Verot (St. John Neumann led 24-0 at the half, before reserves joined the fray), next season could well be the one Howey has been longing for.

This has been their best spring, he said, largely because many of his players have had three seasons to learn his system.

And Howey has cornerstones in guys like Jessie Davis, a senior, sophomore fullback/linebacker Provost and sophomore offensive lineman/linebacker Chris Boran.

And that quarterback.

Not since his days of molding Miami-Gulliver Prep into the type of program that scored the Class 2A title in 2000 has Howey had a starting quarterback like Davis.

Davis (5-10, 165) is an athletic type with 4.6-second 40-yard speed. He started at wide receiver and free safety the last two seasons, had spot duty at quarterback when senior Jon Short missed three games due to injury last season and continued to return kicks and play safety Friday night.

That means the Celtics, who went 7-2 last season under the guidance of Short, will be making a transition.

“It will change my play-calling,” said Howey, who is 18-11 while resurrecting St. John Neumann’s program. “The plays are still the same, but (Davis is) going to keep the ball a lot more than Jon would. Where as I would have Jon throwing the ball, we’re going to run plays where Bobby’s going to hold onto it.”