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Football heads to critical zone

FLEMING ISLAND - Football season has now reached into the DEFCON 5 segment of the season with the next three weeks critical for post season ambitions.
Keystone Heights controls the space ship from the captain’s deck with an undefeated season still rolling and no end in sight to the end of the season. Clay is having major personnel adjustments along with way but typical Blue Devil attitude to finishing the job.
Middleburg is inches away from a Wolfe-led turnaround that would be astounding in the first year of his tenure.
Fleming Island seems to have weathered a mid-season injury bug with freshman quarterback and some injected youth at key positions and has an ever-so-slight shot at a playoff spot.
Oakleaf is facing the Hornet’s Nest, or the Bear Cave (Bartram Trail), to try and salvage a strong point-scoring season, but a less than par defensive season.
For the Ridgeview Panthers and the Orange Park Raiders, the playoff dinner is far stretched, but the finish came be worthwhile for some college looks if both teams complete strong end-of-season surges.

Thursday, Oct. 21
4A-Keystone Heights (7-0) at
1A-Taylor-Pierson (2-4)

Keystone Heights, rested and recovered looks to get to that elusive 10-0 (hopefully no Clay Today jinx for being on sports page front page last week) gets Taylor Pierson (2-4) on the hook to try and stop the run game machine. Four Horsemen healthy; Kade Sanders shoulder got extra week to mend, is tough crew to stop. Dalton Hollingsworth eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark last week (1,055 Yds, 17TDs) with his two backfield mates; Logan Williams and Tyler Jenkins both near 200 yards in their first full outing as ball carriers last week against Crescent City. The Indian run game has put up just one 200-plus game with four over 300 and two over 500 yards with an astounding 40 touchdowns. Good luck to Taylor trying to stop them.
Keystone Heights finishes with winless Stanton Prep (0-7), then 3A-P.K. Yonge (4-3)

6A-Ridgeview at 6A-Gainesville
Ridgeview at Gainesville is good Thursday night game. Panthers have been smacked with injuries as of late, but admirable play from those having to play new positions; notably safety Nasir Tillman filling in also at quarterback with starter Ben Gardiner out with concussion protocol. Youth on the line is a disadvantage against such a rush-strong Hurricane team that took out Middleburg last week and if coach Bryan Arnette can offset the ferocious defensive rush with some off-corner surprises, Chris Baptiste is athletic enough to get downfield quickly and Myles Burris is quality slant receiver that can add yards.
Ridgeview’s defense is centered around middle man Derrick Mosley who has weathered the storms of injury on his side of the ball and continues to seek and destroy on his own. Tillman anchors the secondary from safety and gets his nose on the ball often with cornerman Davion Houston a strong open field tackler and pass cover player.

District 4-6A
St. Augustine (4-2, 2-0)
Gainesville (5-2, 2-0)
Middleburg (4-3, 1-2)
Matanzas (3-5, 1-2)
Ridgeview (1-6, 0-2)

Friday Oct. 22
8A-Bartram Trail at 8A-Oakleaf
District 1-8A game

Super Bowl for Oakleaf with always pesky Bartram Trail in town. Two years ago, this was a scoring, overtime bonanza, but Bartram Trail snuffed Knights big in playoffs last year. Garis has to figure Sutherland magic of big plays at right moment; aka 55 yard field goal. Knights secondary will see their best attack and, if not tight on coverages from Clay, Camden County, Columbia, this could get ugly real fast. Knights offense; Ammon to Bradshaw; Outlaw and Brannon has put up the points, defense has to keep pace. Oakleaf goes doubleheader with Creekside to follow; focus, focus.
Versus Mandarin (20-0 Mandarin first quarter, 47-35 finish), Ammon 237 yards passing, 3TDs; Devin Outlaw 149 yards rushing, 2TDs; Mike Brannon 48 yards rushing; Rae Murray six catches, 1TD, Taylor Bradshaw six catches, 2TDs; Armon Cooper four catches. With that kind of firepower, defense has to hold.

District 1-8A
Bartram Trail (6-1, 2-0)
Creekside (6-2, 1-1)
Oakleaf (4-3, 1-1)
Mandarin (4-4, 1-2)
Sandalwood (2-5, 0-1)

6A-Middleburg at 5A-Clay

The ‘Burg at Clay, always a big rivalry game for proximity and Wolfe and Kennard are combatants that like rivalry games. Padgett will need brother Logan to be in the mix here with tough running the answer. Clay will have 11 hats on every ball. Extra yard or two from Logan could be pivotal.
Both teams have playoff hopes on the line in the following week (Clay vs. North Marion, Middleburg vs. Ridgeview) and this is a huge rivalry game; heightened because of the Bronco success, so looking ahead of the schedule may be a factor. Middleburg needs the likely win over Ridgeview to hope to slide in with a strength of schedule bid for the playoffs having lost to both St. Augustine and Gainesville. Ridgeview gets a few key guys back from injury for one last hurrah and an upset literally upsets the apple cart for Middleburg.

District 4-5A
North Marion (4-3, 2-0)
Clay (5-2, 3-0)
Menendez (3-4, 1-1)
Eastside (0-7, 0-3)
Palatka (1-5, 0-3)

Interesting dynamic is the loss of Clay running back Al’Querious Ray to team rules difficulties, but the Blue Devils may have found another hammer in Chris Goldstein in that running back slot. Kennard has also up-ticked the passing game to get fleetness from D’Maurion Frazier and Jarvis Lee, but both are tasked in the secondary as well.
Middleburg has turned the program around quickly, but the Broncos have fallen short in tight games against quality teams with a handful of untimely penalties squashing momentum and some bad luck on PATs.
Bronco wide out Caleb Freytag has blossomed as a speed back to complement the power of running back Mike Mitchell and that makes the Bronco offense multi-dimensional. Linebacker play for Clay will be critical; Dominic Martin and Zack Fordham the names there for Kennard, but watch out for Clay’s bookend defensive ends in Blake Thompson and Jacob Coulson who both have squished plenty of backfield before plays get a chance to make their breakouts.
The big showdown will be the battle of the offensive lines with the Broncos’ “Pony Express”; Tanner, Dakota, etc; and the Blue Devils’ “Yet to be renamed “Train Depot” (Q Ray was the Ray Train); Ethan, Brad, Gabe, etc.

7A-Atlantic Coast at 7A-Fleming Island
District 3-7A game

Fleming Island has kind of turned around a slow start; losses to Clay and Creekside, but a big win over Lake Minneola and, last week, a dominating win over a winless First Coast team. The Golden Eagles got hit with an injury spurt in midseason and coach Damenyum Springs has had to adjust personnel.

District 3-7A
Fletcher (4-3, 3-0)
Nease (5-3, 3-1)
Fleming Island (4-3, 2-1)
Atlantic Coast (4-3, 1-2)
Ponte Vedra (3-5, 0-3)
First Coast (0-7, 0-2)

If the First Coast result is any indication, three things have happened; one, Sam Singleton may be amping up his game to make a strong run and, possibly, oh so possibly, get a playoff spot for Springs; two, freshman quarterback Cibastian Broughton is getting the hand of big boy football and getting past the freshman follies to become the next four year commander of the Golden Eagle offense and, three, if the young guys who have been plugged into odd assignments; offensive tackle Braden Cunningham stepping up to man the defensive tackle position and Jhace Edwards excelling on defense as an outside chaser, Springs may sneak into the playoffs.
Note: Against First Coast, Fleming Island got some highlight reel action from Singleton (177 Yds, 3TDs), who whipped up a 99 yard scoring run after a First Coast punt got down on the goal line , and Brenden Cook surfaced as a weapon on both sides of the ball with a 94 yard interception return that started with a fourth down steal of a pass in the end zone, then a heads up play on an onsides kick attempt with a catch and run from the 45 yard line to the end zone that quickly flipped the momentum in the Golden Eagles’ win (Note player of week advertistment).
According to Springs, though, he has to run the table (win the rest of his games in cool sports guy talk) and Fletcher has to lose twice. Springs’ optimism comes at a price with a strong Atlantic Coast team this Friday; they beat an unbeaten Creekside team two weeks ago and a strong Mandarin team on opening day. Fletcher, 4-3 with a 3-0 slate in district 3-7A, has already beaten Atlantic Coast and Fleming Island with a 14-13 win over Nease last week; all district games. Fletcher has First Coast and Ponte Vedra left in district play and both are unlikely winners against the Senators, but you never know, the ball takes funny bounces.

6A-Orange Park at 6A-Westside
District 1-6A game
Columbia (6-2, 2-0)
Riverside (6-1, 2-1)
Englewood (3-4, 0-1)
Orange Park (2-5, 0-2)
Westside (1-6, 0-0)

Orange Park and Westside a return of OP former coach Rodney Dubose and former Raider wideout Will White. Dubose is crafty with his play selection. Raiders have showcased spurts of football power with players like Ryan Rykalski getting a recent college offer from Stetson and Southeastern for linebacker play and offensive tackle Roderick Kearney getting three more big offers; Arkansas, South Carolina and Syracuse, recently. The Raiders have great athletes in key position and, if the gelling occurs, the results can be lethal. IF being the key word. Coach Tom Macpherson has had some personnel struggles and, if the team can stay focused, they can be giant killers.

IND-St. Johns Country Day School (1-7) gets Duval Charter (3-2) in final home game.