ORANGE PARK – After seven straight losses, several gut wrenching; inexplicable issues, and many disappointments, tonight was the Clay Blue Devil’s night to shine as the defense sacked Ridgeview High quarterback Max Monroe five times on their way to a 33-7 thumping of the Panthers on Homecoming night.

“It’s hard to throw when you can’t plant your foot” said Blue Devil Head Coach Jay Stilianou about his attacking defense that hounded Monroe all night. “It was fun to watch. We talked about it all week and we finally did it. We put the whole thing together. I couldn’t be more proud of these young men.”

It didn’t start that way as the Panthers won the toss, deferred and allowed Clay to attack first. The Blue Devils moved into Panther territory, only to turn the ball over on downs.

Ridgeview worked Glenn Miller out of the backfield with Monroe taking several runs to move the ball inside the red zone, then passed to Miller to go up 7-0 at 4:49 in the first. Then it was Clay’s turn once again. This time, using a heavy dose of Al’Querious Ray, 22 runs for 178 yards, to draw the Panthers in, and then use a fake screen to Ray, having quarterback Tri Griner III keep the ball and pick up 28 yards to get deep inside Panther country.

“We worked on that play this past week” said Griner. “We added more of the air game, watched a lot of film and studied hard. We were ready.” After another Griner keeper to get a first and Goal to go, enter Brandon Combs to speed his way through a huge hole opened by his front line to even the score, 7-7. On the next series off a Ridgeview punt, Clay again stayed with the one-two punch of Ray and Griner running, throw in a dash of Combs in to confuse the defense, then get back to the air game, this time finding D’Maurion Frazier in the endzone at 6:21 of the second quarter to pull ahead 14-7.

Ridgeview tried their air game, only to have receivers not able to complete the passes and were forced to punt.

From the Panther 40, it only took Ray two rushes to punch it in, 20-7 after a failed point after.

“I really put all my trust in my front lineman tonight and they came through for me” said Ray. “I saw a lot of cutbacks there, so when they cut down, instead of going outside, I cut it back and took everything they gave me.”

On the opening drive of the third quarter, Monroe would get punished by Clay defenders Ty Summerford for seven yards, then again by Valdez Seymour. Riding a Clay penalty, Ridgeview moved the ball to the 35 yard line when Martez Martin and Derrick Mosley met Monroe in the backfield at the same time and sandwiched him, forcing a punt.

The teams would volley possessions with punts, then on Clay’s drive, they pushed the ball to the six yard line, finding Deklan Dougherty in the endzone from Griner for another Clay passing score, 26-7.

Clay’s defense continued to dog Monroe and on a fourth and 21, was intercepted by Tristan Keith, running the ball all the way back to the 48 yard line.

Again, Clay pushed and on a seconnd and three to go from the seven yard line, Griner kept the ball and hooked around the right side to bring the score to 33-7 with 5:08 left in the game.

“We saw some things on the film that we knew we could take advantage of tonight, and it worked” said Stilianou. “If it’s working, keep doing it.”

Asked about the season as a whole, Stilianou said “These kids taught me this season. They dealt with more adversity before they ever walked onto the field. They never gave up all year. They keep showing up. I can’t tell you how proud of them I am.”

Clay wraps up the 2019 season at home with a county matchup against Oakleaf who come in with a Friday night 49-14 win over Nease.