FLEMING ISLAND - With an explosive 30 yard scoring sprint from Sebastian Cruz and a 65 yard pass play to kicker Parker Sirdevan, the surprises offered by Fleming Island High football coach Tom Macpherson were plentiful in an upset 21-10 district 3-5A win over Middleburg on Friday.
"We looked at what we had been doing through the season and we made some changes in personnel and our game plan," said Macpherson, now 5-3 with Middleburg dropping to 7-2. "I think we moved to the ninth spot in the top eight in the region to go to playoffs."
For Middleburg coach Ryan Wolfe, the game was as good a rivalry game as fans would have expected.
"They did a lot of things we knew about, but executed them better than we defended them," said Wolfe. "We had a big play flagged for us that could have changed the game, but give Fleming Island credit, they were prepared for us."
The call Wolfe referred to was a blocked field goal attempt by Sirdevan that Middleburg defender Ronell Seward picked up for a 65 yard touchdown fumble recovery, got flagged for a block in the back despite Seward running unchallenged from the 50 to the end zone.
Fleming Island, in the second half, employed some quick shift movements with offensive linemen shifting prior to snap, first, getting an offsides flag on a key fourth down for the Eagles, and, second, creating Cruz's touchdown sprint that blew the game open with the track-fast Cruz finding a seam and hitting the jets.
"That play works every time we run in in practice and I know the guys up front get psyched to block and this time it workd," said Cruz. "We tried to twice against Creekside and it didn't work so the coaches tweaked it a bit and, oh man, did it work."
Around the county, in the district 2-6A championship game at Mandarin High, Oakleaf lost in their second attempt in two years to supplant the Mustangs hold on the title with Mandarin winning 31-14.
At Orange Park, in a second key district 3-5A game, the Raiders nearly pulled off the upset of the year with a strong 31-28 loss to Beachside. The Raiders led for most of the race.
In two games in district 3-4A, Clay and Ridgeview had to endure two of the top teams in the state with St. Augustine and Columbia both winning decisively in both games; 66-6 for the Panthers and 21-0 for the Blue Devils.
For Keystone Heights, a visit with former weightlifting state champion coach Lantz Lowery, now at Palatka, earned a 46-3 loss to keep the Indians winless in nine games.