TALLAHASSEE — To be the man you have to beat the man. so that is exactly what the West Florida Jaguars did Friday at Cox stadium. They beat the defending 5A champion Godby Cougars 41 to 40.
“I’m speechless. I told my team to dig deep and just hang on for dear life,” said a teary eyed Harry Lees, head coach of the Jaguars.
The story coming into the game was a carry over from last week with the status of injured quarterback J.T. Bradwell and would he start. He did not.
Instead the combination of Peyton Scharinger and Javon O’Neal guided the Cougars to start.
The game began with defense and lots of penalties. There was a combined 80 yards assessed in the first quarter alone in the game.
But Godby found a way to break through on Jaylin Heyward short yard score after O’neal lead the offense over 70 yards down the field. Godby opted to go for two instead of the traditional field goal extra point and did not convert.
West Florida was quick to answer within the next minute on a Joey Baker to Daylan Abrams pass that totaled 28 yards. Then quickly after a Cougar muffed punt, Baker took a quick snap quarterback sneak 21 yards for a score with 10:01 left in the second quarter. They although did miss the extra point.
Godby then did some back-to-back scoring of their own. They managed to close the half with three straight scores.
After an O’neal pass to Kenny Young netted them a tied game at 13, the Cougars got tricky. They scored on a running back option pass that traveled 37 yards down field into the arms of Tavis James.
Then with 19 seconds left Revonte Robinson scored on a one yard run to put Godby up 13 over West Florida 26-13 at halftime.
Coming out of the half the Cougars were penalized for 50 yards alone in the third quarter.
But the Jaguars were sure to capitalize on Godby’s mistakes. They reeled off 28 consecutive points in the second half.
Jaguar quarterback, Joey Baker, ran in his second touchdown with 5:55 left in the third quarter. But turned right around threw a 57 yard bomb to University of Missouri commit Lawrence Lee for a score.
With 10 seconds left in the third quarter, Godby quarterback J.T. Bradwell made an appearance on the field.
Going into the fourth the Cougars looked for a spark from their senior leader but instead he was intercepted by Lawrence Lee who returned the ball 75 yards for a score.
The Jaguars closed the game with an Abrams 45 yard score. This put the Jaguars up 15 with 7:16 left in the game.
The Cougars marched down field and scored with 4:25 left in the game. After going for two and not converting yet again the Cougars relied on defense down by 9.
Bradwell was able to score on a desperation throw to linebacker Jacob Pugh. But it was a case of little to late.
“It’s my fault. I failed to do my job when it came to calling plays on the two point conversions. Thats all on me. My boys played their butts off tonight and I’m proud,” Cougars head coach Ronnie Cottrell said.
With Godby losing there will be a newly crowned 5A champion this year. Next up for the Jaguars will be a date with district winner Pensacola Catholic. The winner will go on to play in the regional final. Game time is set for 7:30 Central Standard Time on Friday November 22.
