FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island High junior quarterback Cibastian Broughton ran for 241 yards and two touchdowns, but it was not enough as visiting Bartram Trail spoiled the Golden Eagles’ Homecoming game with a 49-28 victory on September 29. The 77 points scored came in a circus-like second half after both teams were held scoreless in the first half.

“Cibastian is probably the best athlete I have ever coached, and he tries to be a leader,” said Parker. “He is the kind of kid who is going to put the team on his back and compete.”

Broughton’s rushing total was an unofficial school record for rushing yards in a game by a Fleming Island quarterback. Combined with his 144 passing yards, he accounted for 72 percent of the Golden Eagles’ total offense. With his team trailing in the second half, Broughton was even inserted to return kickoffs, though he never got an opportunity.

Despite lofty preseason expectations for each team, both the Bears and Golden Eagles came into the contest with 2-2 records, making it as much of a must-win game for both teams as can be in only the fifth week of the season. Fleming Island head coach Chad Parker, who admitted before the game that it meant more to him than other games because he had been the assistant head coach and running backs coach at Bartram Trail last year, went for broke by playing more of his Golden Eagles on both sides of the ball.

“When I coached at Orange Park, the big thing was, ‘Play our best 11,’” said Parker. “Depth is definitely an issue for us [at Fleming Island].”

The strategy paid off in the first half, as the Golden Eagles kept the high-flying Bears—who boast Riley Trujillo, a quarterback who is headed to Central Florida on a football scholarship, Laython Biddle, a running back who is committed to playing at the Naval Academy, and Arthur Lewis, a slot man/running back who is just a sophomore but who is already entertaining several Division I offers— off of the scoreboard. Braden Cunningham, Fleming Island’s star offensive tackle, also played defensive tackle and recovered a Bears’ fumble in the end zone to thwart a drive that had reached the five-yard line. But the Fleming Island offense also failed to score, hurt by a holding penalty that nullified what would have been a 46-yard touchdown run by De’mhir Jackson and a turnover at the Bartram Trail five-yard line, leaving the teams tied 0-0 at halftime.

The second half was a complete reversal of the first half, with the two teams exploding for 77 points and 897 yards of offense. Lewis turned a swing pass from Trujillo into a 62-yard score on the first play from scrimmage, and the Bears never let up. Bartram Trail reached the end zone on their first six possessions of the second half. While Fleming Island answered the Bears’ first score with a touchdown of its own, the fatigued Golden Eagles were unable to keep pace. At least four Fleming Island players left the game with leg cramps.

“We played more guys both ways,” said Parker. “With that comes conditioning, and we were not there yet. We just got to get in better shape.”

Lewis ran the same wheel route on which he had scored Bartram Trail’s first touchdown to the other side of the field on the Bears’ second possession of the third quarter and scored again, this time on a 30-yard pass from Trujillo that gave the Bears a 14-7 lead. In all, Trujillo threw three touchdown passes to Lewis.

With the Golden Eagles wary of the passing game, the Bears changed tactics and started feeding Biddle. He ran for 270 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.

“They [the Bears] are loaded with talent,” said Parker, who pointed out that Bartram Trail has a roster of 190 players and fields two junior varsity teams while Fleming Island has a roster of 60. “It was only a matter of time.”

Fleming Island kept pace for a while. One play after Lewis’s first touchdown, Golden Eagles running back Tyler Beverly burst through a hole on the right side and was not caught until he gained 77 yards, reaching the Bears’ three-yard line. Three plays later, after a block in the back penalty nullified an apparent touchdown pass from Broughton to Trace Burney, Broughton rolled left, cut upfield, and cut back into the end zone from 16 yards out. Parker Sirdevan’s extra point tied the game at 7 with 9:46 remaining in the third quarter.

One play after Biddle scored on a 36-yard run to give the Bears a 21-7 lead, Broughton faded back, faked a pass, took off up the middle and outran everyone 80 yards to cut the deficit back to a single score with three minutes left in the third quarter. Broughton, who is on the Fleming Island track team and credited weightlifting with his legs for his improved speed, has been clocked at 11.1 in the 100-meter dash. The junior could not be headed off by the two Bears’ safeties who had angles on him.

The game’s defining sequence spanned the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarters. Down 28-14, the Golden Eagles marched from their 20-yard line to the Bartram Trail 32. On a third and two from there, Broughton took the snap and feinted towards the line as if it was a running play but pulled back to pass. The Bears’ Ryan Spencer blitzed from Broughton’s blind side and sacked him for an eight-yard loss as the third quarter ended. On fourth down, Broughton’s deep pass intended for Jackson fell incomplete. Taking over at their own 40, the Bears needed just two plays to put the game away. Biddle swept left, escaped the grasp of Fleming Island’s Jackson— another of Fleming’s two-way players— at the corner and sped all the way to the end zone. The 60-yard score gave Bartram Trail a commanding 35-14 lead with 11:07 left in the game.

Broughton did not let his Golden Eagles teammates give up, pulling his offensive lineman aside on the sideline and encouraging them to keep fighting. Midway through the fourth quarter, Broughton faked a swing pass to Daevean Boykin in the flat, then lofted a perfect spiral to a streaking Burney along the left sideline. Burney hauled it in and cruised 57 yards to the end zone for a touchdown, cutting the Bears’ lead to 42-21.

Broughton led the Golden Eagles on their final scoring drive with under two minutes to play. He scrambled for 21 yards and followed that with a 39-yard completion to Burney. After Broughton ran for 11 yards and a first down at the nine-yard line, Jackson took a handoff, ran right, broke a tackle and scampered into the end zone for the game’s final touchdown with 0:54 remaining.

The Golden Eagles, now 2-3 overall and 0-2 in District 3-4S, must recover in time to face Lake Minneola on Friday, October 6. The Class 4S Hawks are also 2-3.

“The season is not lost,” said Parker. “Seven and three and six and four will get us to the playoffs. If we take care of business the next few weeks, we will go to the playoffs.”