On Saturday night, Hernando Christian Academy (7-5) welcomed the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (10-1) to the Lions’ Den for the SSAA 8-Man 3A State Championship. In what was an absolutely wild showdown between the Lions and the Dragons, the visitors from St. Augustine outlasted HCA 60-53 to take the title.
Hernando Christian started the game off strong with a clock-chewing, 12-play touchdown drive of nearly seven minutes. Heavy doses of Junior Caydon Williams at quarterback and Freshman Tayvion Howard at fullback ended in a 4-yard rushing score by Howard.
Unfortunately for the home team, an injury to a major piece of their offensive puzzle, Junior Jaden Montzka, took an inadvertent hit to the lower leg and was essentially unable to return for the rest of the evening.
“In tonight’s game, the die was cast when I lost Jaydon, our tailback, on the first series […] From that point on, we were mix and matching plays trying to put on the field what we could without a tailback,” said HCA Head Coach David Raley. “We only have 12 kids to play […] It makes it difficult, but for us to score 53 without a tailback, it shows you that I feel like that if that incident had not yet happened, that we would have defeated this team. I really do.”
The head coach credits Assistant Coach Gabe Barker for managing the depth chart and figuring out how to shuffle players into the best positions after a teammate has gone down with an injury. This reconfiguration was needed not only throughout the game to compensate for the loss of one of their best players, but to do so throughout the season as well. This was needed more than ever on Saturday, though, considering the visitors were scoring points in bunches.
The Dragons’ first drive was a single run by the speedy Junior Daniel Healy for 60 yards and the score. Their other possessions included similar plays of 32, 43, 49, and 50 yards. Healy finished with 138 yards rushing (9 attempts) and Junior Edward Bell amassed a grand total of 268 rushing yards across 13 attempts.
Coach Raley noted that his squad was only the second such school to hold a lead over the Dragons heading into halftime. That was the result of several time-consuming touchdown drives in the first half that kept the visitors’ potent offense off the field. In the third quarter, those opportunities began to diminish, and the Lions began to fall behind.
That would not be it for them, though. Down 17 points early in the final frame, the home team would mount a furious comeback attempt. A roughly five-and-a-half-minute drive and two point conversion was followed by a fumble recovery two plays into the Dragons’ next drive to give the Lions hope.
Another touchdown and two-point conversion later (both on runs by Howard) would pull HCA to within one. The visitors would get out to a multi-score lead moments later after another pair of short Dragon drives, but HCA would battle back again when Howard brought the ball across the goal line yet again.
HCA would lead one last possession in an attempt to score the game-tying touchdown, but the drive would stall, and the Dragons would run out the clock on the Lions’ Cinderella season.
Despite being down a key player, as well as multiple scores late, Coach Raley’s squad battled back every time. Factor in a new, young crew and making it to the state championship, this was a monumental achievement for the Blue, Black, and White.
“I’m extremely proud of these kids,” Coach Raley said. “For us to get this far with a rebuild… This team didn’t exist until this year. Last year’s team was really athletic and a lot of seniors. We graduated a bunch of kids and we also [have] a lot of transfers. There was only two starters from last year’s team that made this team, and for us to get all the way to pushing almost coming through a state championship in the 3A category […] is amazing.”
Coach Raley was impressed with the “phenomenal play” of his quarterback, Williams, who is “maybe one of the best we’ve had here,” he added. After Montzka’s premature exit from the game, Williams assumed full-time signal caller duties and handled it with aplomb. He finished the day with two rushing scores and one passing touchdown on a beautiful throw and catch to Junior Layton Boggs.
The Lions’ Coach is extremely proud of how his team played defensively, too. The score may not “look like they fought hard, but they did,” he added. Defensive Coordinator Coach Garrett and the entirety of the defense will be back next year with the knowledge of how close they were and the desire to get the bitter taste of this defeat out of their mouths.
