St. Augustine beats Crestview 49-28 to advance to Class 6A football semifinals
The celebration was rather muted.
St. Augustine High will be making its first trip to the state semifinals in seven years, but as far as the Yellow Jackets are concerned celebrating can wait two more weeks.
Dexter Brown rushed for more than 200 yards for the third straight week and the Jackets forced four turnovers in a 49-28 victory over Crestview in the Region 1-6A final Friday night at Foots Brumley Stadium.
St. Augustine improved to 12-0 in its final home game of the season. It will travel to Seffner Armwood next Friday for a Class 6A semifinal. Armwood defeated Ocala Vanguard 31-17. The winner will play for the state title in Orlando on Dec. 8.
“It’s an awesome feeling, but there’s more to come, hopefully,” said St. Augustine quarterback Austin Reed, who passed for 178 yards and a touchdown and added a 1-yard scoring run. “We have to keep working.”
With a muddy field after two days of rain, the Yellow Jackets kept the ball on the ground most of the night with Brown rushing for 201 yards on 31 carries with two touchdowns. Unlike the past two weeks when the senior ran for six TDs of 55 yards or more, he kept moving the ball with short chunks of yardage throughout the night until finally breaking a 68-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I saw the hole and I just had to go,” Brown said of his long run. “I did not think I was going to run that much. It was hard to get a good footing out there. You’d try to make a cut and you’d slip.”
The Jackets rushed for 131 yards in the first half. Brown ran for 66 of those yards on St. Augustine’s first drive. His 4-yard TD scamper put St. Augustine up 7-3 with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
But on first down of the ensuing drive, Crestview’s Devin Voisin ran a short pass from Rod Bouchard 77 yards for a TD to put the Bulldogs (10-1) up 10-3.
The Jackets then scored on their next three drives to take a 28-10 lead into halftime. Fre’Quan Sparrow scored on a 9-yard run, a wide-open Karim Brown waltzed into the end zone on a 61-yard TD pass from Reed and Cedrin Daniel scored on a 15-yard jet sweep following a fumble by Bouchard. The Jackets knocked the ball out of the quarterback’s hand as he was getting ready to pass and Josh Rickerson recovered.
The Bulldogs quickly scored early in the third quarter after a punt snap went over Eli Ryan’s head into the end zone. Instead of taking a safety, Ryan tried to kick the ball off the ground, and Crestview recovered at the 3. Jay Stanton scored on a 3-yard run to make it 28-16.
But the Jackets followed with an 80-yard drive with Reed following his line into the end zone from the 1.
“Our offensive line was amazing tonight, run blocking and pass blocking,” Reed said. “They were the reason we were able to succeed.”
The Jackets recovered two fumbles on back-to-back drives in the first half. Tyrek Russ’ third interception in two games stopped a Crestview drive at St. Augustine’s 20 late in the third quarter. And Josh Peterson returned a pick 42-yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter to make the score 42-16.
Crestview’s Jay Stanton ran for 88 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, including a 60-yard TD reception in the fourth quarter.
“We’re just going to go back to the office Monday,” Daniel said when asked about advancing to the final four. “It’s just business.”
Crestview took an early 3-0 lead on Cody Traywick’s 23-yard field goal. The Bulldogs converted on third-and-4 and two fourth downs but decided to kick with fourth and goal at the 6.
