St. Augustine continues rivalry dominance over Palatka

PALATKA, Fla. – It was a double Senior Evening for the second-oldest rivalry within the state, with seniors from each St. Augustine and Palatka being launched and honored previous to the sport at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Then St. Augustine’s seniors, and underclassmen, went out Friday evening and did what a lot of their latest predecessors have completed — ship a decisive victory over Palatka.

The Yellow Jackets had a 100-yard, three-touchdown efficiency from junior again Davonte Lyons, an almost 300-yard evening from sophomore quarterback Locklan Hewlett and, for good measure, an excellent defensive effort from senior O’Ryon Brown in delivering a 42-10 defeat of the rival Panthers within the regular-season finale, the News4JAX Sport of the Week.

“It’s nice. The rivalry has been occurring for thus lengthy, it’s good to continuously beat them,” mentioned Brown, who had two sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss. “Simply figuring out we’ve performed for thus lengthy, there’s sort of a hatred there.”

Whereas profitable the rivalry is important — and St. Augustine (7-3) now has completed it 9 consecutive occasions and in 22 of the previous 24 seasons — there was postseason significance. The Jackets can be in fine condition for a home-field opener in the event that they received, whereas a victory by Palatka (7-3), would just about clinch a postseason berth.

St. Augustine coach Brian Braddock, whereas important of his crew’s penalties, was glad to see his crew examined proper earlier than the postseason.

“The blessing tonight, us having some difficulties and taking part in a super-improved Palatka crew, credit score to them, was that it was laborious,” Braddock mentioned. “We needed to earn what we received. It wasn’t as straightforward as a number of the conditions we’ve been on this season. Our children had some difficulties, and I feel it was good for them to expertise it as a result of it’s not going to be straightforward within the playoffs.”

Whereas the Jackets will know Sunday who they must prep for, subsequent week is in limbo for the Panthers. They entered the weekend seventh in Area 2-2S. The 4 district winners from every area make the postseason, together with the following 4 highest-ranked groups within the area. As District 8-2S champion Crescent Metropolis is out of the highest eight within the area energy rankings, Palatka has to carry its prime seven spot or danger lacking the postseason.

Yulee, which routed Menendez 35-7, was the following crew within the energy rankings, 1.223 behind the Panthers. However Palatka might have caught some luck as Tocoi Creek, which was forward of the Panthers regardless of shedding to Palatka earlier within the season, was pummeled by one-win Nease.

Whether or not his crew performs subsequent week or not, Panthers coach Patrick Turner was completely happy together with his crew’s turnaround season.

“Truthfully, in or out, I’m content material for this yr,” Turner mentioned. “It was a heck of a run. (We went) 7-3, the primary time in 20 years it’s been completed. The objective was to go .500. We exceeded that. However to be a superb soccer crew, it’s important to win constantly towards good soccer packages, and we received somewhat style of that tonight.”

The primary style got here early as, on St. Augustine’s third play from scrimmage, Hewlett related with Trenton Jones for a 71-yard scoring cross and a 7-0 lead. Whereas Palatka would tie the sport, the Jackets by no means trailed.

It was the beginning of massive nights for Hewlett, who had 297 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Jones, who hauled in seven passes for 163 yards.

“It positively gave us momentum,” Hewlett mentioned. “Trent has received nice pace, and is a good receiver, and. I belief him. So when the O-line offers us time, we’ve received to ship. I’m in an ideal state of affairs with all of the expertise round me and a fantastic teaching employees. It’s an ideal crew.”

However, as Braddock talked about, the Panthers had been troublesome for a while. They had been in a position to even the rating following an interception by Tyshawn Castor, which arrange a five-play scoring drive capped by Jamarrie McKinnon’s six-yard keeper. However St. Augustine answered with a 10-play scoring drive, aided by 35 yards in penalties towards Palatka, which Lyons completed off with the primary of his three scores.

The turning level as Turner noticed it got here after Joseph Alvarez-Aguilar kicked a 40-yard discipline objective to slender the hole to 14-10 with simply lower than three minutes left within the half. The Jackets, who now maintain an all-time fringe of 58-43-3 within the sequence, put collectively a nine-play drive, once more assisted by Panthers penalties, which noticed Lyons, who rushed for 135 yards, cap together with his second rating.

“They drove the sphere down and we gave them three penalties there,” Turner mentioned. “They rating proper earlier than the half. That one, proper earlier than the half, stung.”

Earlier squandered alternatives got here again to hang-out Palatka. The Panthers transformed a 4th-and-9 on the opening drive, solely to fail on a fourth-and-1 later, when St. Augustine’s Mike Wright stopped a dashing try for a two-yard loss. The sphere objective was a lift but it surely got here after a 12-play drive, and a later 24-yard try by Alvarez-Aguilar was blocked with the possibility to drag nearer from 28-10.

Despite the fact that St. Augustine got here up empty on a 12-play drive to start out the second half, the Jackets had been again ultimately zone on their subsequent drive, which took lower than two minutes and was capped by Lyons’ 14-yard landing run.

From that time on, the gang started to dwindle and the Jackets started to drag away, with the weekend to attend and see if their crew will take the sphere once more this season.

St. Augustine 42, Palatka 10

St. Augustine,  7, 14, 7, 14 — 42

Palatka, 7, 3, 0, 0— 10

SA – Trenton Jones 71 cross from Locklan Hewlett (Adam Talha kick)

P – Jamarrie McKinnon 6 run (Joseph Alvarez-Aguilar kick)

SA – Devonte Lyons 2 run (Talha kick)

P – Alvarez-Aguilar 40 FG

SA – Lyons 4 run (Talha kick)

SA – Lyons 14 run (Talha kick)

SA – Darrell Jenkins 40 cross from Hewlett (Talha kick)

SA – Sean Harvey 1 run (Talha kick)

Class: SA — P

First downs: 25        9

Rushes-yards: 38-203 — 31-80

Passing: 297 — 169

Comp-Att-Int: 17-29-1 — 14-25-1

Fumbles-lost: 2-0 — 0-0

Penalties-Yards: 10-66 —14-107

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — SA: Lyons 24-135, Sean Harvey 9-53, Jones 3-29, Hewlett 2-(-14). P: McKinnon 10-28, Saiquan Williams 12-27, Tommy Offord 7-25, Albert Leonard 1-0, Tyran Bush 1-0.

PASSING — SA: Hewlett 17-29-1-297. P: McKinnon 12-22-0-89, S. Williams 1-1-0-69, Offord 1-2-1-11.

RECEIVING — SA: Jones 7-163, D. Jenkins 2-50, Myles Simmons 3-33, Ivyn Collins 2-27, Carl Jenkins 2-19, Marsaun Harris 1-5. P: Bush 3-87, Offord 3-42, Trent Williams 2-30, S. Williams 4-16, Tay Valentine 2-(-6).