- November 25, 2024
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It was a good night for Flagler County’s two high school football teams.
Flagler Palm Coast didn’t score a touchdown until its last drive of the game Friday night, but that was the drive that gave the Bulldogs an 11-7 victory over Seabreeze.
On fourth down and trailing 7-3, Devonti Emanuel scored on a 5-yard run. And after the Bulldogs added the two-point conversion, they held a four-point lead with 53 seconds left in the game.
“We basically scripted this game before it even started,” FPC coach Caesar Campana said. “We told these guys, ‘We’re going to win this game at the end of the game. And it’s going to come down to just being patient.’”
And patient was just what FPC was as they played almost the entire game trailing Seabreeze.
The Sandcrabs put together a 90-yard scoring drive on their first possession of the game.
The Bulldogs didn’t seem to have an answer for Trey Rodriguez, Connor Blair, Charles Nelson and the Sandcrabs’ up-tempo offense.
The long drive was capped off with a Blair touchdown run from inside the 5-yard line on a zone-read play. It proved to be the most success Seabreeze had for the entire game.
“They didn’t give us anything different,” Seabreeze coach Marc Beach said of FPC’s defensive scheme after the touchdown. “And we practiced for it. We just didn’t execute.”
FPC’s offense got its first points with 7:25 left in the second quarter on Johnny Osorio’s 30-yard field goal.
The kicking game was important for FPC all night. Osorio, who is also the punter, was able to kick the ball away from Seabreeze’s dangerous return men.
“We just kept the ball away from them,” Campana said. “We were taking 25-yard, 30-yard punts and just keeping the ball on the ground without them picking the ball up and running.”
The victory and a 2-0 start are big for the Bulldogs, but Campana won’t let his players rest for too long.
“We’ll celebrate it for about 24 hours and then get ready for next week,” he said.
Matanzas knocks off Florida Air
Meanwhile, across town, a full week of practice was just what the doctor ordered for the Matanzas football team.
The Pirates (1-1) were able to work on new wrinkles in their offense after the Week 1 loss to FPC, and it paid dividends Friday night in a 26-14 win over Florida Air Academy (0-1).
Matanzas got on the board early when running back Rahim Booker scampered into the endzone on a 14-yard run six minutes into the game. The touchdown capped off a nine-play, 63-yard drive.
The first drive was foreshadowing for what the Pirates planned to do for the entire game. Despite running back De’Undre Lumpkins being out of the game (concussion), Matanzas coach Keith Lagocki stuck to the running game.
Booker and Stefan Tucker did all the damage.
With the game tied 7-7, Tucker ripped off an 85-yard touchdown run along the right sideline as the first quarter came to a close.
“We wanted to run the ball because we knew we could run at them,” Lagocki said after the game.
In regard to the running game, Lagocki added: “We do have a lot of interchangeable parts. We don’t have quantity, but we have quality.”
With the score remaining 20-7 through the third quarter, Florida Air scored on a Josh Denton 35-yard run. With 6:47 left in the game, Matanzas’ lead was cut to 20-14.
But after Florida Air recovered an onside kick, the Pirates defense stiffened.
Matanzas forced a punt and recovered a fumble on Florida Air’s final two possessions, preserving the first win of the season.
“The great thing about this team is we have championship-caliber defense,” Lagocki said. “Our defense is going to keep us in games.”
And that’s exactly what the Pirates needed Friday night.
For more coverage and photos, see Wednesday's edition of the Palm Coast Observer.
