TALLAHASSEE — The eagle has landed … the North Florida Christian Eagles are officially the district 2A-1 champions. Friday night they defeated the FAMU DRS Babby Rattlers in Bragg Memorial stadium by a final score of 45-16.
“A lot was on the line tonight. Even though win or lose we still make the playoffs its about playing in front of our home crowd during the playoffs. You can never get tired of winning and that’s our mindset,” said Eagles head coach Robert Craft.
Conditions for the game were not the best due to on and off rain all throughout the game.
On the Rattlers first drive they took off nearly six minutes with 10 plays and scored the games first touchdown. Junior running back, Jim Jones, carried his team on that drive and also all night. Overall he amassed nearly 100 rushing yards for the night.
The ensuing drive for North Florida Christian was not what they expected. The almost always sure handed Jonathan Vickers, senior running back and Florida State Seminole recruit, fumbled on his second carry of the game.
The Rattlers were not able to capitalize on the turnover and instead fumbled the ball right back.
Vickers took advantage of his second chance and paced his team on their second offensive drive. He was able to reel off a 7-yard touchdown run to get his team on the board.
At the start of the second quarter the Eagles’ drive slowed to a stop and they had to opt for a field goal. Jordan Bennett, the Eagles kicker, who in pre-game was converting on 60 yard field goal attempts connected on a 45 yard field goal with 11:02 in the second quarter.
The Rattlers got the ball back after an exchange of possessions and answered back with 4:19 left before half.
Quarterback for FAMU DRS, Donte Fields, jumped over a pile of Rattler and Eagle players to go in for 1-yard touchdown. Adding their second two point conversion of the night the Rattlers led 16-10.
With some nifty moves Jonathan Vickers scored from 26 yards out to put North Florida Christian up by one at the half … 17-16.
After the break Vickers took no time picking up where he left off scoring on his second carry of the opening quarter after the half. He went 48 yards on an outside toss play. Breaking multiple tackles and adding a late dive over two Rattlers got him in the end zone.
Donte Fields and the Rattlers offense failed to register a score in the entire second half. Fields went on to finish the night 7 of 16 for 73 yards through the air. He also threw one interception. On the ground Fields ran for 113 yards.
But the star of the night was Jonathan Vickers for the Eagles. He finished his night with over 200 yards rushing and five touchdowns. The only negative for Vickers was his early first quarter fumble.
“I can’t take credit for nights like this … I give all the credit to my offensive line. They come to work all week and look forward to blocking on Friday,” said Vickers.
The Rattlers shot themselves in the foot all night as they were penalized 14 times for over 125 combined yards.
“We can’t be sloppy. Tempers flared late in the game and that is what led to the late 15 yarders. But going into next week we have to clean that up if we want to play good playoff football,” said Ira Reynolds, FAMU DRS head coach.
Both teams look forward to playing in the playoffs. Because of the district win, North Florida Christian will host Harvest Community while FAMU DRS will have to take to the road and play University Christian to start their 2013 playoff campaign.
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