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Buchholz turns back Fleming Island after second-half comeback

By Joshua Wilson Correspondent/FloridaHSFootball.com
Posted 10/28/20

GAINESVILLE – For the Fleming Island Golden Eagles, close games and comebacks have been a common theme so far with a dramatic come-from-behind win over Creekside and an overtime loss to Oakleaf in …

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Buchholz turns back Fleming Island after second-half comeback


Posted

GAINESVILLE – For the Fleming Island Golden Eagles, close games and comebacks have been a common theme so far with a dramatic come-from-behind win over Creekside and an overtime loss to Oakleaf in previous weeks.

In Gainesville, against a Buchholz High team that has annually been a thorn in both Oakleaf and Fleming Island’s sides, another comeback, unlike a few weeks ago against Creekside, was not as successful as the Bobcats turned back the Golden Eagles’ late-game efforts to claim a 24-21 home victory at Citizens Field.

“Our kids know to stay the course,” said Fleming Island head coach Damenyum Springs. “They know to stay the course, don’t drop your head, stay focused, do your assignments and just keep playing until the whistle blows.”

Things got started quickly for Buchholz who took the first possession down the field with a four-and-half minute drive torching the Golden Eagles defense through the air that would be capped off by a 25-yard touchdown pass from Creed Whittemore to Adrian Sermons with 7:36 to go in the first quarter.

With the ball in hands of the Golden Eagles for their first drive, it was time to see they would respond to the impressive drive that the Bobcats. Fleming Island tailback Timothy Thomas romped for 41 yards to the Bobcat 21 in a show of force to respond, but the Golden Eagles stalled and a field goal attempt was blocked.

However, the blocked field goal was mirrored with a Buchholz wide-left field goal by Buchholz near the end of the first quarter that kept the score the same.

Things from there seemingly got worst for Fleming Island instead of better after the missed Buchholz field goal when the Bobcats defense shut things down quickly forcing Fleming Island to go three-and-out.

On the ensuing snap for the punt to give the ball back to the Bobcats, the snap went off weak hitting the ground, but by the time punter Colt Hyams had the ball recovered the Buchholz defense swarmed him, taking him down at the 35-yard line to set the Bobcats up with their best field position of the night.

Buchholz capitalized swiftly with running Quan Smith capping off the short drive with a 10-yard touchdown drive with 8:25 left to go in the second quarter.

The only spotlight of the first half for Fleming Island came from Darius Harris who intercepted a deep pass that resulted in a 50-50 ball being aimed for Buchholz’s Quan Lee deep inside Fleming Island territory.

Buchholz’s last touchdown of the game, to go up 21-0 before the half, would come with 1:26 left in the first half with a nine-yard touchdown run by Jacarree Kelly.

“On defense, we weren’t getting lined up. We weren’t getting lined up with what they were running,” said Springs. “Didn’t know exactly what they were running so we went into the second half and made adjustments. On offense, we kind of expected that, but not really that. That is not our starting quarterback [about Kojak starting], he was out.”

On the opening possession of the second half, Fleming Island didn’t take much time off the clock when the Golden Eagles finally found a way to punch back against the Bobcats’ aggressive defense with a Sam Singleton 55-yard touchdown run to cut Buchholz’s lead to 21-7 with 9:27 left in the third quarter.

Buchholz’s defense wasn’t letting go of things, making the Golden Eagles pay after tight end Timothy Lawrence caught a TK Kocak pass when Damien Curtis was able to land a big pop on Lawrence and striping Lawrence of the ball and recovering the fumble at the Buchholz 49-yard line with 2:43 left in the third quarter.

The Bobcats, however, were unable to convert the turnover into points, giving the ball back to the Golden Eagles.

It only took two plays thanks to an 89-yard touchdown pass play from Koack to Timmy Thomas, who had been shut down most of the night in the run game thanks to the Bobcats’ defense.

That touchdown cut the Bobcats’ leads down 21-14 with 1:42 left in the third quarter.

With the comeback game on for the Golden Eagles, finding their grove both offensively and defensively when Darryl Nesmith intercepted a Whittemore pass to give the Golden Eagles two interceptions on the night.

That interception set things up in great field position for the Golden Eagles which would be spurred further by another big Singleton run to the red zone that would then be capped off by a five-yard touchdown run by Kocak with 10:42 left to go in the game.

Attempting to run the clock out, the Bobcats settled for a 23-yard field goal from Hunter Smith who has previously missed the first-quarter field goal to put them up 24-21 with 3:14 left to go.

With still enough time left to get the go-ahead score or at least tie things up, it wouldn’t be the case in this situation for the Golden Eagles when Bobcats safety Donny Hiebert intercepted the pass with 2:26 left in the game, allowing the Bobcats to run out the clock.

“We went in and made our adjustments on defense, we got our guys lined up in the right spots and our guys went and started making plays,” said Springs. “The offense saw something that we could slip some guys out and make some big catches and take it the distance and they executed the game plan well in the second half.”

Fleming Island, which falls out of the FloridaHSFootball.com Class 7A rankings with the loss, will close out regular-season action on Friday night at Atlantic Coast in Jacksonville with the tilt kickoff at 6 p.m. before taking the following week off in preparation for hosting Cantonment Tate in an FHSAA Class 7A play-in playoff game on Friday, Nov. 13.