FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – At least one area team is a win away from making repeat appearances in the state title game.
Raines? Not just yet.
The answer is in Nassau County, where coach Blake Willis has crafted Fernandina Beach into a steady title contender in the Sunshine State Athletic Association.
The Pirates defense twice clamped down when Paxon went for it on fourth down inside the Fernandina 15 on Friday night, while Pirates quarterback Ian Miller threw three touchdown passes — including two long ones to Aydin Poe — as Fernandina secured a SSAA quarterfinal triumph over the visiting Paxon 28-0 in the Varsity 4 Game of the Week.
“We’re very excited. This is a big thing for us,” said senior defensive end Kalani Tucker, who had a nasty sack to close the first half to go with several pressures. “We were really locked in all week.”
Next week will be huge in Nassau County, as the Pirates (7-5) travel across the county to meet rival West Nassau, the bracket’s top seed, for the right to represent the SSAA’s North Bracket in the Atlantic League in the state championship game. The Warriors, who knocked off Umatilla, 45-36, in their quarterfinal, defeated Fernandina, 32-21, earlier in the season.
But the second-seed Pirates are optimistic that things can play out similar to last season when Fernandina lost to West Nassau during the regular season but turned around and beat the Warriors in the playoffs on the way to a state title game loss to Frostproof.
“It’s big. That’s what we push for all summer — championship or nothing,” said senior safety Devin Murray, who had a tackle for loss and an interception. “Same story as last season, they come out and win the first time, we’ll come out and win the next time.”
Murray, Tucker and the defense played a major role in putting Fernandina on the cusp of another title game showing. The defense forced two turnovers, held the third-seeded Golden Eagles (7-5) to five three-and-out possessions and forced turnovers on downs three times, including one in which Beckham Rohe broke up a pass off a fake punt.
Paxon’s KJ Palmer entered the contest with 2,115 rushing yards, 19 touchdowns, 8.0 yards a carry and 192.3 yards a game, and he did churn out 132 yards. But it took him 32 carries, and his longest gain was 10 yards.
“We’ve really put an emphasis on what we’re supposed to do in the run game,” said Willis, whose team lost five in a row to close the regular season. “We’ve struggled in the past half of the season. As coaches, we’ve tried to step up and really coach these guys to know what they’re supposed to do, so we can have a performance like (this).”
The Golden Eagles did move the ball at times. Their opening two drives lasted 11 and 12 plays, respectively. But, facing fourth-and-9 at the Pirates 13, a running play was stopped short on the first drive. The second possession stalled out just past midfield and led to a punt.
But it was the second possession of the second half that Paxon coach Steve Brown regretted. Trailing 14-0, the Golden Eagles took eight plays to get to the Fernandina 14 and faced fourth-and-1. But a false start pushed them back five yards, and the next play was an incompletion.
“We picked the wrong night to struggle with our execution,” Brown said. “We had our chances. Had fourth and a foot and we jump. The game (would be) 14-7, and they’re not stopping us at that point. The whole momentum changed with that play.”
While Paxon had two long but fruitless drives to start the game, the Pirates scored on their opening two drives.
Miller connected with Rohe for a 14-yard score on the game’s opening possession for a 7-0 lead. On third down during the next drive, Miller hit Poe over the middle for the first down, but Poe shrugged off two would-be tacklers and then out-raced four defenders to the end zone for a 73-yard catch-and-run touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Poe later grabbed a 32-yard scoring pass from Miller to end the third quarter, one in which Miller took nine seconds to scramble back and forth across the pocket until heaving it to the end zone, where two open receivers awaited, and the ball found its way to Poe’s hands.
D’ante Simms then finished all the Golden Eagles’ hopes with a 50-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter.
“We kind of struggled with the penalties a lot,” Willis said. “That kind of hurt us a lot in the offensive side of the game. But we were able to score some points even though we got put back of the chains.”
Brown said his group made a great run this season, with the first consecutive winning seasons for the school since 2001 and 2002.
“We’ve accomplished a lot,” Brown said. “They’ve got a lot to proud of, but it’s hard to tell kids that at this moment.”
The season will go on for Fernandina with the team guaranteed its first winning season since 2020. And, as Poe noted, two nice playoff runs coinciding with Willis taking the reins of the program.
“All the hard work we put in, having this head coach for two years,” said Poe, who had four catches for 119 yards. “We’re doing pretty good for what we’ve got.”
Fernandina Beach 28, Paxon 0
Paxon, 0, 0, 0, 0 — 0
Fernandina Beach, 14, 0, 7, 7 — 28
FB – Beckham Rohe 14 pass from Ian Miller (Hudson Kenner kick)
FB – Aydin Poe 73 pass from Miller (Kenner kick)
FB – Poe 32 pass from Miller (Kenner kick)
FB – D’ante Simms 50 run (Kenner kick)
FB – xeeeee
P – xeeeee
Category: P — FB
First downs: 13 — 11
Rushes-yards: 40-126 — 30-115
Passing: 81 — 260
Comp-Att-Int: 9-29-2 — 18-24-1
Fumbles-lost: 3-0 — 1-1
Penalties-Yards: 4-16 — 8-70
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — P: KJ Palmer 32-132, Elijah Nunez 2-12, Dycorian Miller 1-4, Mason O’Dwyer 1-1, Team 1-(-3), Javier Dixon 3-(-20). FB: Simms 12-92, Talan Van Delinder 7-26, Traivon Martin 6-16, Gavin Dampier 1-0, Miller 2-(-5), Team 2-(-14).
PASSING — P: Dixon 9-27-2-81, O’Dwyer 0-1-0-0, Tyler Devaughn 0-1-0-0. FB: Miller 17-23-1-254, Van Delinder 1-1-0-6.
RECEIVING — P: Stephen Akita 3-45, Nasir Hughes 2-26, Ja’beron Ray 2-13, Cody West 1-2, Palmer 1-(-5). FB: Poe 4-119, Rohe 6-72, Othellus Swift 2-28, Ethan Watts 3-23, Khordel White 1-8, Martin 1-6, Jake Holbrook 1-4.