MACLENNY-Four weeks ago, Clay left Memorial Stadium with a 28-14 loss and no answer for stopping the Baker County ground attack that accumulated over 250 yards on the ground.
Fast forward four weeks later, they were well prepared for it in a Clay 48-14 win last night at Memorial Stadium.
Clay defensive coordinator Jay Stilianou made it his mission the last four weeks to prepare and stop the Wildcats offense. It worked holding the Wildcats to season low 5 rushing yards.
“There really wasn’t anything secretive we did, we really just focused on the little things, we missed so many tackles in that first meeting,” Stilianou said. “5 (Seth Paige) and 22 (Josh Haygood) are really good and our goal was to not let 5 and 22 beat us tonight and they didn’t.”
Clay won the toss and differed the ball to the second half putting its defense to the test right away.
After holding the Wildcats to a quick three and out, junior quarterback Caleb Eason went to work carving up the Wildcats defense.
Eason went 6 for 6 on the opening drive capping a 81-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown catch to Ajay Belanger to give Clay a 7-0 lead seven minutes into the game.
On the first play of the second quarter, Eason added to his total with a 50-yard strike to Jaylan Jenkins for a 14-0 lead.
The fourth bad snap of the first half for Baker County, proved to be costly as Clay recovered at the 25-yard line and took advantage of it.
Two plays later, Colin Wilson raced 15 yards down the left sideline untouched for a 21-0 lead with 10 minutes left till half.
From there it only got worse as the Wildcats offense that managed over 200 yards last time had no answer for the Devils defense and was forced to punt six times in the first half, while also fumbling the snap five times in the first half.
Quarterback Joe Green (11 of 21 for 171 yards and two touchdowns), tailback Seth Paige (3 yards on 6 carries) and fullback Josh Haygood (1 yard on 1 carry) combined for 5 yards on 15 carries on the night.
Following another punt, Eason connected with Derek Smith for a 2-yard completion on fourth and goal to increase the lead to 28-0 with 6:01 left till halftime.
Cedric Brown bulldozed his way in for a 3-yard run just before half to give Clay a surprising 35-0 halftime lead.
Following the earlier loss to Baker County, Hoeksta and his staff decided to move Jenkins back to receiver and move Eason to quarterback to change up the offense. Eason didn’t play at all in the earlier game besides holding the ball on the point after attempts in that game.
The move has paid off as Clay has averaged 40 points a game every since and Eason had a career first half.
“Coach (Ryan Wolfe) and I made the decision and it’s been paying off,” Hoekstra said. Caleb is a very smart kid and we designed the offense to spread out the field and now we have Jaylan (Jenkins), AJ (Belanger), Derek (Smith), Colin (Wilson) and Marcus (Jones) to spread the ball around and get people out.”
Eason finished the first half 16 of 21 for 257 yards and 3 touchdowns before finishing 16 of 24 for 257 yards and three touchdowns.
“My coaches designed the offense to get space with our athletes and they make me look good,” Eason stated. “My offensive line did a great job blocking their butts off and gave me plenty of time to make plays.”
The big lead forced a running clock in the second half, only stopping after scores .
Following a Eason interception, Baker County finally got on the scoreboard as Joe Green connected with Lee Graham for a 35-yard strike cutting the lead to 35-7 midway through the third quarter.
Brown (102 yards on 16 carries) added to his total with a 15 yard touchdown run with about four minutes left in the game increasing the lead to 42-7.
“We just got him back this week, he’s been hurt and now to have him and Colin (Wilson) that’s a great tandem to have,” Hoekstra added.
Green closed out his career with a 23-yard toss to Cam Mobley in the closing seconds to finish it at 42-14.
Baker County (9-2) had a chance to advance to the third round for the time in school history but now dropped to 0-6 all-time in second round playoff games.
“We saw stuff on film we knew we could take advantage of that we didn’t see the first time and our coaches had a great game plan tonight and our kids gave great effort tonight as well, ” Stilianou added. “Our kids were phenomenal on Monday and they were fired up to be here, they wanted to come back here.”
Hoekstra echoed those statements as well after the game in his post game comments in his team huddle.
“We found a way to make adjustments and you all know what we have been doing the last month was preparing you for this and you just beat a really good team and we put a running clock on them,” Hoekstra added.
Now Clay continues one of its greatest traditions a Thanksgiving Day practice, where the whole community comes out and plays football with the team including several former players.
A day later Clay (9-3) will travel to New Port Richey River Ridge (9-2) Friday in the regional semi-final round (Elite 8). A win over River Ridge would allow Clay to host the regional final Dec. 2 against the Rickards-Ponte Vedra winner.
“I can’t wait for Thanksgiving Day practice with all of our friends and family support,” Eason said, “It’s one more thing to be thankful for.”
