TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – St. Augustine’s quest for a perfect season ended with a last second heartbreak.
Daytona Beach Mainland’s Jacob Gettman kicked a 23-yard walk-off field goal as the Buccaneers stunned the Yellow Jackets 21-19 in the Class 3S championship game on Thursday at Florida A&M. It was St. Augustine’s first trip to the title game since a 2007 loss to Naples and nearly ended with a state title.
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But Mainland did just enough when it mattered, converting a pair of fourth downs on its final drive and settling in for Gettman’s winner to deny St. Augustine (13-1).
The Yellow Jackets managed just 204 yards to Mainland’s 505 yards.
St. Augustine’s high-powered offense was limited all game. It wasn’t until Carl Jenkins Jr. went up and grabbed a long ball from Locklan Hewlett, maintained his balance after getting tangled up with a defender and turned it into a 52-yard touchdown with 8:40 left that the Yellow Jackets scratched out their only offensive touchdown of the game.
St. Augustine used special teams and defense to build a quick 13-0 lead but it couldn’t stack anything after that. The Yellow Jackets missed a field goal and had a dropped touchdown in the end zone in the third quarter, critical mistakes that would ultimately sting it.
A Hewlett interception led to a 44-yard touchdown run from Dennis Murray just four plays later to cap an 18-0 Mainland blitz over the first 13 minutes, 22 seconds of the second half and put it in front 18-13.
The opening kickoff wound up in the hands of Trenton Jones and he raced his way from nearly one end zone to the other. In 16 seconds, Jones covered 96 yards behind a wall of blockers to put St. Augustine in front 7-0. His path to the end zone was so clean that the players Jones left in his wake started signaling touchdown by the time he crossed midfield.
The other play came courtesy of another special teams play, a field goal block by Ja’Ki Singleton that Marquice King scooped up and took 67 yards on a zig-zagging touchdown return. With 50 seconds left in the opening quarter and a 13-0 lead, it was about as ideal of a start as the Yellow Jackets could have hoped for.