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Blue Devils shut down Raider offense, win 27-0

By Ray DiMonda
Posted 4/18/18

GREEN COVE SPRINGS - With both teams garnering mentions in recent state flag football rankings, Clay High coach John Stilianou unleashed his defense on to the Orange Park Lady Raiders vaunted offense …

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Blue Devils shut down Raider offense, win 27-0


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS - With both teams garnering mentions in recent state flag football rankings, Clay High coach John Stilianou unleashed his defense on to the Orange Park Lady Raiders vaunted offense to the tune of a 27-0 thrashing on Friday to dispell any ideas that Clay may not be a third in the state level team.

“Orange Park is a good team; don’t fool yourself” said Stilianou. “Sometimes I think you just have bad days and maybe that was the case because they are good. That score doesn’t represent how good they are.”

The Blue Devils, led by Lea Plante’s cross country touchdown jaunts all season, had other plans as they needed a quarter of play to settle in and get the offense moving. The first quarter went by as a game of cat and mouse as both teams were looking where one another would go in situations.

“In the first quarter, we didn’t do the little things,” said Stilianou. “Just look at the dropped balls.”

At the end of the first, it was still 0-0 with neither team getting any momentum started. The second quarter began with a declared Raider punt from the end of the first quarter, that Clay ran back for a few and set up their offense. The pair of Ciara Zino at Quarterback, and Brookelyn Gerush seemed to match up well as the Blue Devils went to that exchange several times. After earning a fresh set of downs, Zino found a wide open Abby Hawkins for a huge 16 yard gain. Then on second and goal, Zino went back to Gerush for touchdown number one with 8:50 left in the half.

“Zino did a heck of a job putting the ball up and letting her go up for it and get it,” said Stilianou. “Sometimes it’s not plays, it’s players.”

Back on offense, Orange Park quarterback Harlee Sharp tried getting her offense going with several pass ands run attempts, but the Clay smothering defense was too much for the Raiders and had to declare kick. Off the punt, Plante took the catch, pitched it to Zino and gained another 10 yards back.

Now dealing with a short field, the Devils scored on fourth down with Zino finding Hawkins again wide open in the end zone to make it 13-0. Plante ran a sweep left for a good point after and a 14-0 lead that Orange Park couldn’t build off of before the half, only running three plays before time expired.

The start of the second half, the Raider unleashed defender Larickya Cummings on speed rushes to get quarterback sacks. The defensive strategy seemed to work until Clay went right back to work seemingly at will with a Lea Plante jump catch for another Clay touchdown. Alexis Stilianou came up with the point after to make it 21-0 Clay.

As the Raiders got the ball back, on second down, Stilianou jumped Orange Park’s Nayeli Williams to intercept the ball.

“I tell the girls just sit and do your job, matchup when people come to your zone, and Alexis made a great break on the ball and sealed it by making that catch,” said Stilianou.

Clay finished with a Kimber Griffin touchdown reception. The point after failed, leaving the score 27-0. With 3:20 left in the game, the Raiders would run three more plays before the Mercy rule kicked in at the 2:00 mark and the game was called by the officials 27-0.