GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Three years ago when Jay Stilianou and Jared Moses took over the flag football program at Clay, flag football officials told them both to go watch Orange Park so they could learn how to play flag football.
My how times have changed, three years later, Clay has gone from the hunter to the hunted; with three consecutive district titles, three consecutive playoff appearances and now back-to-back trips to the Final Four.
Yet despite their three year success, Clay likely still feels they don’t get the respect they deserve.
Perhaps now they finally will.
Fourth ranked Clay knocked off second ranked Tallahassee Godby 18-13 to clinch its second straight trip to the Final Four.
Clay jumped on Godby early with two quick scores to take a 12-0 lead at the half.
Godby came out of the halftime perhaps a bit fired up and responded with a score to cut the lead to 12-6 midway through the third quarter.
As the fourth quarter begin, the game was still in doubt and in position for anyone to take it.
Two minutes into the fourth, Clay scored again to go up 18-6 to establish a little bit of breathing room.
Godby answered with 2:34 left in the game to cut the lead to 18-13, as the Blue Devils still clanged to a one score game.
With less than a minute remaining, Clay tried to pick up a clinching first down but came up about a yard short forcing a punt.
Godby fielded the punt and tried a reverse and gained a few yards before having its flag pulled.
From its own 20 yard line and 12.8 seconds left, the Cougars (14-2) had a huge hill to climb to try to pull out a dramatic victory.
Quarterback Kaylene Coburn took off and up mid field before racing down the Clay sideline before being pushed out of bounds around the ten with seconds left.
After a quick timeout, the Cougars had one last chance to pull off the comeback with 3 seconds left.
Coburn again took off and ran down the left sideline on the Godby side but came up three yards short of crossing the goal line to end the Cougars season.
Clay senior Alexis Stilianou reflected on the win and going back to Boca Raton again.
Clay coaches Jared Moses and Jay Stilianou were excited about the huge win and going back to the Final Four.
Both talked to their team after the game and had plenty to say including Stilianou getting choked up about the opportunity to coach his daughter one more time on the final day of flag football at the state finals.
And now for the second straight year, the Blue Devils will have to give up their prom to play in the Final Four again.
“Sixteen, seventeen and eighteen year old girls giving up their prom again to try to reach a dream to play for a state title and hopefully make school history,” Stilianou told the team and parents. “That says a lot about them, how unselfish these girls are, how they just play as a team.”
Clay (14-0) will play state power Tampa Robinson (16-0) on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. in the Class 1A state semifinals at Boca Raton.
And just like every other playoff game they have played in they will be underdogs again and they are okay with that, as they have assumed that role.
NOTE: Photo courtesy of Josh Wilson from FloridaHSFootball.com
