FLEMING ISLAND – Oakleaf High opened up their clash with Fleming Island High’s state-ranked flag football team with a 60 yard scoring bomb from quarterback Maja Merriweather to wideout Andrea Merced-Dias, but the blast was not enough to shake the consistency of the Golden Eagles attack in a 26-12 win for Fleming Island on Thurs., March 29 at Fleming Island High School.

With just three minutes off the clock, Merced-Diaz found herself wide open in front of the Oakleaf bench and Merriweather threw a perfect spiral to about the 40 where Merced-Diaz outran the Golden Eagle defense to paydirt.

Fleming Island, with quarterback Ashley Byrd controlling the crossing backfield of tailbacks Hope Rozier and Aubrey Burke, got a crossing pass and penalty flag to Burke that put the Golden Eagles at the Knights’ five yard line with 4:06 left in the quarter. Burke would next rumble on a right sweep to score then catch the point after pass for a Fleming Island 7-6 lead.

Burke would befuddle the Knights’ defense on the next series with a midfield interception with a minute to go that turned into a 40 yard score from Rozier to Burke in the corner of the end zone just into the second quarter.

Halfway into the second quarter, Burke would breakaway for a 40 yard score to push the Golden Eagle lead to 20-6.

In the third quarter, Rozier would snag an interception to set up a little trickery in the backfield for the Golden Eagle offense with Byrd at quarterback shuffling the ball to Burke who lateraled to Rozier who found Byrd behind the Knights secondary for a 20 yard scoring pass play and a 26-6 lead with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.

Oakleaf, forced to pass in the fourth, got hit with another interception, this one by Byrd at safety, to end a Knights’ scoring threat, but Oakleaf worked a scoring drive late into the fourth quarter that ended with Kyesha Samuels blasting down the field on sweep handoffs before hitting paydirt on a drag pass for a score at 5:04.

With a minute left in the game, Oakleaf had an apparent score with Merced-Diaz catching a pass that looked to be a touchdown prior to the interception, but officials ruled her back-of-the-end-zone snag out of bounds.