FLEMING ISLAND - The Lake Minneola Hawks swooped into the stadium at Fleming Island with shock and awe, jolting the Golden Eagles with a burst speed run game from Hawks’ running backs Dane Thompkins and Jalen Parmley, and an impressive air game from quarterback Jackson Hughes. The Hawks, a region final loser to 4S champion Lakeland High last year, wasted no time after winning the coin toss, taking the ball, and marching the field in under two minutes to put a quick score on the board. The Golden Eagles misfired a pitch out on the counter drive, and recovered for another Hawk score to get ahead 13-0 just after 8:00 in the first quarter. The Hawks would continue with heavy defensive pressure every play, not allowing Golden Eagle quarterback Cibastian Broughton any time to set up plays. The Hawks held the Golden Eagles to a single score in each of the first three quarters for a bruising 56-20 home loss. Fleming Island finds itself in a four-loss run that they desperately need to find a way to break.

“I tried to spread the ball around and get the ball to our best players on the field,” said Golden Eagles quarterback Cibastian Broughton. “That’s all I could do. I did a bad job of doing that in the first half of the game, but we picked it up in the second half. The outcome just wasn’t what we wanted.”

Broughton was moving around to scramble away from pursuing defenders for much of the first half, never having a chance to set his feet to throw well. Even with several impressive runs as he was forced out of the pocket, the running yards just weren’t enough to make up for the yard totals put up by the Hawks.

“I knew they were pretty good on offense,” said Fleming Island Head Coach Chad Parker. “I talked with Travis Roland over at Mainland (High School- Daytona Beach) and he said they were the best offense they saw all year. We knew what we were getting into with them. They are a very good offensive football team. They’ve got really, really good football players and we found ourselves out of position a lot. That’s what happens when you play with a young football team. Growing pains. We are playing with a bunch of sophomores and freshmen out there. In a couple of years, it will be a different story.”

After the quick Hawk scores, Broughton was able to create enough time for a 20-yard touchdown pass with 2:44 left in the first quarter to bring the score to 13-7. As the second quarter began, the Hawks came out with a 29-yard touchdown pass to go up 20-7. On the return drive, Broughton was picked off with 9:33 left to play until the half. Lake Minneola needed just over two minutes to move ahead 27-7. After a first down, Fleming Island would again be stopped and punt away. The Hawks needed a scant two minutes to drive and bring the score to 34-7. Fleming Island drove the field, putting another 7 points on the board just before the half with a Demhir Jackson one-yard run, 34-14.

In the third quarter, Broughton would pass another touchdown for the final Golden Eagle score at 2:14 of the third quarter. “He’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever been around,” said Parker. “We had him do a lot of spread-out stuff early on and he came back to the sidelines and said he was not comfortable with it, he wanted to get back to drop back. That would let him keep his eyes downfield, and he can move around and avoid defenders. He makes plays with his legs and extends plays. We have twitchy little receivers who can get off routes and that’s what we needed to do. So, by rolling out, it was taking that out of his game.”

The Golden Eagles will do everything they can to stop the four-game slide when they travel across the river to take on the 5-2 Mandarin Mustangs Friday night. The season gets no easier with the following week for a district game, traveling to Creekside High to take on the 3-3 Knights in St. Johns.