GREEN COVE SPRINGS-All week long Clay head coach Josh Hoekstra had a funny feeling about his game with rival Orange Park Friday night.
Fortunately for him and his Blue Devils football team they had just enough left in the tank to hold off the Raiders 35-27 at C.B Bowles Stadium in the District 5-5A opener for both teams.
A week of seeing offensive starters tailback Colin Wilson, fullback Marcus Jones and left guard Jarrod Leeds, who has committed to Georgia Southern, all go down with injuries; left Hoekstra with huge wholes to fill but that was just the start of things.
“We didn’t have a great week of practice and we weren’t focused at all,” Hoekstra said. “Not to mention the injuries to three key starters as Colin (Wilson) was injured at the end of the Gainesville game and was limited all week, (Jarrod) Leeds went down Tuesday at practice and Marcus (Jones) has been banged up all week too.”
It’s a good thing there motto is ‘next man up’ as Clay had to rely on other people on offense to fill their voids. A testament to how deep the Blue Devils roster truly is.
Besides quarterback Jaylan Jenkins, the Devils got huge contributions from junior tailback Tymious Goodman and junior wide receiver Ajay Belanger on offense and sophomore corner Marcus Dixon and junior corner Zach Alvarado on defense.
Early on it was a fortune of turnovers that literally fell into the hands of the Devils that helped them establish a quick 15-0 lead.
A high snap over punter Dennis Mitchell head was recovered by the Devils at the 19-yard line. Six plays later, Jenkins connected with Belanger on a 7-yard inside slant pattern and Wilson leaped over the pile adding the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
On the Raiders ensuing play, Marquise Brown fumbled the ball away after a short carry and the ball popped up in the air and into the hands of Alvarado who carried it back 16 yards for a score and 15-0 lead.
After stopping the Devils on a fourth and goal play from the 4-yard line, the Raiders marched 96 yards to cut the lead nearly in half.
Aided by a 43-yard run by Darrel Vann, quarterback Demarae Byrd hit Twain Newton across the middle for a 30-yard strike cutting the lead to 15-6 with 5:18 left till half.
Two Clay possessions later, the Devils took advantage of a short free kick from Byrd and began their drive at the 37-yard line. Six plays later, Jenkins again connected with Belanger on a fade route from 14 yards out extending the lead to 22-6 with 11.1 seconds left till halftime.
Melvin Perry nearly took the ensuing kickoff back for a score but was caught by Dixon at the 19-yard line. Orange Park lined up for a 35-yard field goal with just a second left till half, but a low snap forced the holder to abandon the play and he was gang tackled.
Clay carried a 22-6 lead into the half despite not having Leeds or Jones and seeing Wilson carry the ball for 24 yards on only 7 carries in the first half.
Wilson sat the second half as it looked like the Devils wouldn’t need him. They were nearly wrong.
Orange Park took the second half kickoff and put together a solid drive before a 19 yard loss on a sack and intentional grounding call put the Raiders out of field goal range.
The Raiders lined up in an apparent punt formation on fourth and 13, but the up back lineman Max Moore took the snap and he was gang tackled immediately.
Clay took over at the 36-yard line and quickly added to its lead as Jones made the most of his lone carry of the night with a daggering 64 yard touchdown carry up the middle, breaking two tackles along the way before racing the final 35 yards untouched for a 29-6 lead minutes into the third quarter.
A quick three and out by the Raiders allowed the Devils to strike quickly again. Jenkins found Belanger alone and in stride for a 60-yard strike on the Devils first play from scrimmage increasing the lead to 35-6 barely five minutes into the third quarter.
Byrd found Kam Thomas alone for a 22-yard touchdown catch after scrambling away from defenders cutting the lead to 35-12 with 5:08 left in the third.
Two plays later, Goodman was stripped of the ball and the Raiders recovered inside the 30-yard line.
A bizarre play set the tone for the rest of the game as cornerback Evan Martin picked off a Byrd pass in the end zone and proceeded to take it out of the end zone for a few short yards before cutting back left and going back in the end zone where he was a gang tackled for a safety cutting the lead to 35-14 with 2:15 left in the third.
On the first possession of the fourth quarter, the Raiders methodically moved down the field thanks to the arm of Byrd, who completed three passes on the drive, which culminated with Byrd sneaking in from the 1-yard line cutting the score to 35-20 with 6:54 left in the game.
Two plays later, Devin Jones picked up a Goodman fumble and rumbled 35 yards untouched for a score and all of the sudden it was 35-27 with six minutes to play.
After holding Clay on its next possession, the Raiders had one final chance to perhaps tie it up with under three minutes remaining.
Vann, who finished with 128 yards on 16 carries, along with Byrd 9 yard pass to Jordan Bundy had the Raiders near midfield.
Deontrae Thomas, who started the night at safety and was moved to tailback in the fourth quarter finishing with 50 yards on 7 carries; unfortunately his fumble with 1:18 left allowed the Devils to kill the clock and escape with the win.
“Obviously we got the running game going well and Byrd made some nice throws and Melvin made some big time catches for down the stretch,” Orange Park head coach Tom MacPherson said about his offense finally exploding and the 21-0 run.
MacPherson attributed to small things left on the field as a huge factor as well.
“A lot of hidden points played a factor in this, they get the 2 point conversions and we don’t, we had a PAT that was blocked, little things like that add up.”
As bad as both teams played in the second half with multiple turnovers, MacPherson was quickly to give Clay a lot of credit.
“Give Clay a lot of credit, they were missing some key offensive starters tonight yet they were still able to take advantages of some things on us.” MacPherson added.
Orange Park (2-1) needs to clean up a lot of things on both sides of the ball before traveling to a hot Middleburg (2-2) team, that destroyed Englewood 45-7 last night.
At least MacPherson and Byrd have confidence in their offense now and may have found an identity it was lacking so far.
“Everybody started communicating really,” Byrd when asked how offense was able to finally find an identity and break out. “We practice really hard and work during school watching a lot of film.”
As excited Hoekstra was for the win he knows his team has a lot of things work on still and get better on.
“I thought Coach Wolfe called a great game and Ajay (Bellanger) won a lot of 50-50 balls for us and Jay (Jenkins) picked up several key first downs for us,” Hoekstra said.
“Not only were we out those three key players on offense but we lost two key defensive players Dakari Augustin and Raequan Williams to injury tonight as well.
“We knew they (OP) were not going to quit, they are an outstanding team and this was a great district win for us,” Hoekstra said. “We can learn a lot from this.”
Clay (3-1) travels to nemesis Oakleaf (1-2) for a non district showdown at the Dungeon next Friday before returning home Oct. 14 for a District 5-5A showdown with Ridgeview.
