Stung at the buzzer: Mainland field goal denies St. Augustine football in FHSAA final
TALLAHASSEE — For St. Augustine, Thursday looked like the most special of special teams days.
Until the ending.
Then, Daytona Beach Mainland kicker Jacob Gettman booted the game-winning field goal as time expired, ending St. Augustine's title dreams 21-19 in Thursday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 3S football championship at Bragg Memorial Stadium.
Gettman's 23-yard field goal with two seconds left sailed through the uprights as the clock struck zero, Buccaneers players swarmed the field in exultation and St. Augustine players dropped to the ground.
Mainland quarterback D.J. Murray, taking the dual-threat concept to the next level with 163 yards rushing and 219 passing in his final Bucs game, led a masterful two-minute drill — including a fourth-down conversion in traffic to Marquis McCants — to the St. Augustine 6 to set up Gettman's kick.
St. Augustine, which overcame offensive sputters to lead most of the way, looked set to claim victory after Locklan Hewlett's go-ahead 52-yard touchdown to Carl Jenkins Jr. with 8:40 remaining.
They came up two seconds short.
Gameday coverage: Mainland edges St. Augustine for Class 3S high school football championship
A FINISH TO REMEMBER
St. Augustine led for all but 1 minute, 58 seconds of the game: the seconds between the opening Mainland kickoff and Trenton Jones' return to the house, a short span at the start of the quarter and the finish.
But on a night when Mainland dominated most statistical columns, Murray made sure the Bucs ended on top of the scoreboard as well.
Murray had just watched the offense come up empty on the Jackets' 19 with 5:40 remaining, turning over on downs. Amid confusion over the clock, St. Augustine chewed up more than two minutes before punting the ball back to Mainland at midfield with 3:26 to go.
The senior quarterback marched the Bucs into scoring range, converting a fourth-and-7 strike to a diving McCants under tight coverage from Ja'ki Singleton. On the next play, Murray took off again, scrambling for 18 yards to the St. Augustine 5.
When St. Augustine stuffed two Rodney Hill runs, head coach Travis Roland summoned Gettman for the kick of a lifetime with two seconds remaining.
"[I've imagined that moment] a lot, and I'm just glad I took the best of it and made it," Gettman said.
SPECIAL START FOR JACKETS
On a night when the St. Augustine offense struggled to get going early against five-star Florida commit L.J. McCray, special teams carried the load.
The Jackets began the first quarter with a guided missile to the end zone, Jones' 96-yard launch to the house from Mainland's opening kickoff, and ended the period with Marquice King carrying the prize of a blocked field goal back to the end zone, 70 yards, after Ja'Ki Singleton swatted down a Mainland field goal and King took the ball back the full distance.
Mainland (14-1) outgained the Yellow Jackets 225-42 in the opening half, and confronted with a potent Buccaneer pass rush, St. Augustine only managed four offensive snaps in the first 17 minutes and 28 snaps of play.
Three Mainland drives before halftime ended in Jacket territory, including King's return off the field goal block and Jimmie Wheeler's decisive break-up of a fourth-down pass to the end zone in the second period, sending St. Augustine into the locker room with a 13-0 edge.
MURRAY MASTERFUL FOR MAINLAND
For a while, a St. Augustine defense that repeatedly frustrated Mainland in the red zone looked like it would be enough, in spite of 27 Buccaneers first downs.
But Mainland's adjustments after halftime, coupled with mounting fatigue for St. Augustine's defense, tipped the balance.
"We did a couple things up front on the O-line-wise, and [adjusted] our alignment at running back, because we knew how they were slanting," Mainland coach Travis Roland said.
Khamani Robinson, bottled up in the first half, broke out after the break to carry for 94 yards on 22 carries. That complemented the 37 yards from Hill and Murray's 163.
Murray brought the Bucs back efficiently: a 15-yard pass to a leaping Clarence McCloud in the back of the end zone and a 4-yard Hill rush pulled Mainland back within 13-12, before the quarterback took off himself for a 44-yard sprint to the end zone and an 18-13 advantage.
"We just played so many plays in the first half on defense," Braddock said.
FUTURE BRIGHT FOR JACKETS
Missed opportunities cost the Jackets.
A 30-yard field goal missed narrowly wide in the second half, a potential St. Augustine score slipped away when Myles Simmons couldn't hold Hewlett's pass near the end zone, and the quarterback also threw a rare interception to Bubba Westbrook near the end of the third quarter to set up a Mainland touchdown.
Will St. Augustine get another chance in 2024? It's a real possibility.
The Jackets have bounced back before, back when Braddock was serving as an assistant coach. In 2004, St. Augustine reached the semis but fell to a steamroller Bolles team. The next December, they won it all.
For now, they've got a year to work. They'll have significant graduation losses, including 27-TD running back Devonte Lyons (74 yards Thursday) and senior captains Simmons, Singleton and Drake Lusk. But Wake Forest-committed quarterback Hewlett is due to return. So are receivers Jenkins and Jones, and sophomore Somourian Wingo. Key defensive returners include edge rusher K'yon Wilcox, who registered a fourth-quarter sack on Murray, and defensive lineman Mike Wright, a force in the trenches throughout the postseason.
"It's a special group," Braddock said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Augustine loses exciting Florida high school football championship
