FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island High football struck first then held on in their 19-7 preseason win over visiting Westside High School Friday night at Fleming Island High School. Defensive back Eugene Oglesby generated the highlight of the night with an interception return for a touchdown; one of two picks for Oglesby.

Sophomore quarterback Dean Hyams hit senior tight end Nick Ferendo with a 40 yard scoring pass to put the Golden Eagles on the board quickly in the first quarter that looked to give Fleming Island High a jump start on 2017. Fleming Island opens 2017 with a visit to Clay High School in the annual rivalry game won last year by Fleming Island.

“Yes- Clay is going to be a tough game,” said Fleming Island High coach Damenyum Springs. “We have to get better and hopefully we can handle business next week. Right now, we’re not focused on them. We have this film which we wanted so we can correct our mistakes and we’ll go back to working and get better.”

Against Westside, Springs got the win with the help of an interception return from cornerback Eugene Oglesby, but that was the extent of his defensive highlight comments.

“The whole defense was kind of a disappointment today,” said Springs. “Honestly, in my opinion they gave up too many yards, had too many penalties, missed too many tackles, and we just got to keep working.”

Springs also had some discontent with his quarterback situation with Hyams getting yanked for senior Brian Brown, who returned to the huddle amidst a series of discipline mishaps in 2016, after a series of first half miscues.

After a bad snap and a woeful punt, Fleming Island took over on the Westside 28-yard line. Penalties kicked in and Fleming Island found themselves first down from the 40-yard line before a pass to Eric Alexander and another to Anfernee McCaskill would put them back in the drive with a first down on the 13 to end the first quarter. On the next play to start second quarter, Hyams would throw an interception and kill the drive.

Westside would begin to pick apart the Fleming Island secondary and march down the field with several strikes into the Golden Eagle secondary. With the ball inside the eight yard line, Fleming jumped offside to move Westside even closer. After two run attempts, Westside quarterback Jalil Jackson kept the ball and walked right into the end zone to tie the game at 7-7.

After a second Hyams interception, Brown would enter the game with the ball at the 20 and quickly move the offense inside the Westside 19. On fourth down, the Golden Eagles would find another area with concern as they attempted the first of three field goals that could not make it through the uprights.

For Springs, the running game became the opportunity to move the ball with a handful of athletes able to lug the pigskin.

“We went through a couple of running backs last year, so I wanted to make sure we had enough backs,” said Springs, who lost Clay hero Chauncey Garrison to a season-ending injury in 2016. “Chauncey (Garrison) is still the man. We’ve got Bobby Brown, Ozzie Ramirez, Naijah Northrup, Anfernee McCaskill, and Eric Alexander all ready to go.”

The third quarter started with Westside driving and attempting to test the Eagle secondary once again. This time, Fleming’s Eugene Oglesby was ready and had his first of two interceptions of the game and this one for a pick-6 touchdown.

“The pick-6 was real good,” said Springs. “That was Eugene Oglesby and he’s finally able to play. He’s been at the school, played freshman year and hasn’t played since. So, we got him back out, he came out and did a good job. We’re looking for big things out of Eugene so hopefully he’ll get some more.”

Fleming Island’s point after crew was spot on and put the Eagles up 14-7 early in the third.

Westside would continue to show Fleming Island where they need to fix their defensive secondary as they seemingly could pass out to their left side whenever they wanted. They could move the ball for a while until they had to run. Fleming’s front defensive line would make the stop when they had to and keep Westside out of the end zone for the rest of the game.

The fourth quarter was back and forth for both teams. With 7:52 left in the fourth, Fleming Island was stalled again and would try another kicker. Avery Coussens would hit an odd-looking kick with the ball turning from side-to-side that finally found its way through the uprights to put Fleming up 17-7. Westside would continue to attempt runs and Fleming would continue to stop them. When the Eagles got the ball back, they could drive no deeper than the 30-yard line and with kicking issues, decided to punt. Ryan Smenda hit a perfect kick that Fleming downed on the Westside 1-yardline. After a quarterback keeper with no gain, Westside false-started and moved back another foot and a half. On the next play, the Wolverines attempted a pitch-out right that was nowhere near the runner. By time Westside picked the ball up, the Golden Eagles had swarmed and scored the final points of the game with a safety, ending the score at 19-7.