Tallahassee Fl-The Class 3S FHSAA state championship kicks off today, as St. Augustine (13-0) faces Daytona Beach Mainland (13-1) in the battle of state road A1A. Lets take a look at each position, give you who has the advantage in each unit, and our prediction of the big game.
Quarterback: Advantage- Even
St. Augustine
Locklan Hewlett has passed for 2,293 yards and 21 touchdowns this year. The Wake Forest commit has led the Jackets to an undefeated season, not missing a beat after missing 4 games. He is a prolific passer, one of the best pocket passers in the state of Florida. The St. Augustine passing game led by both Hewlett and Dylan Cook has passed for 3,536 yards and 38 TDs.
Mainland
Mainland has some prime time transfers from Flagler Palm Coast. Quarterback Dennis Murray Jr came over, providing confidence, experience, a strong arm, and play making ability in the pocket. He passed for 1,359 yards, 16 TDs, and 7 Ints. Murray has also rushed for 787 yards and 11 TDs this season. He has 11 D-1 offers including USF, UNLV, Georgia Southern and Liberty.
Running Backs: Advantage- Even
Mainland’s playmakers have tremendous speed, and can score quickly. No one better illustrated this fact than junior Khamani Robinson. The 6’0, 180lb athlete rushed for 1,092 yards and 14 TDs this year for Mainland. He has D-1 offers from Pittsburgh, Eastern Kentucky and Marshall. Mainland’s offensive line led by Jerard Bell and 3-star Campbell commit Elijah Walker have helped the Bucs rush for 2,730 yards this year.
Devonte Lyons of St. Augustine has been the bell cow back for the Jackets. Lyons has 1,343 yards and 25 TDs on the season. He’s had an incredible playoff run. Round 1: 8 car 181 yds 3 TDs. Round 2: 27 car 112 yds 4 TDs, and Round 3: 27 car 133 yds 2 TDs, 2 Rec 37 yds. He’s picked up an offer in the playoffs as well from FIU, to go with others from Temple, and Georgia Southern. St. Augustine’s offensive line led by Tarvarian Keenon and Jalen Freeman has helped the Jackets rush for 2,169 yards and 40 touchdowns.
Wide Receivers : Advantage- St. Augustine
Marquis McCants has blazing speed as well as excitement when the ball is in his hands this season he led the team with 5 TD receptions. Clarence McCloud leads the team with 359 yards receiving and added 4 TDs. Mainland can count on them to make a game changing play in every outing.
St. Augustine boasts arguably the best receiving core in the state of Florida. Led by dynamic weapon Carl Jenkins Jr. who has led the receiving core with 1,015 yards and 13 touchdowns on the season. Jenkins picked up an SEC offer from Arkansas in the playoffs. Trenton Jones is capable of taking over a game. Second on St. Augustine in receiving yards with 884 yards and 6 TDs. The acrobatic and athletic Myles Simmons is second on the team with 12 touchdowns amassing 792 yards receiving. They’ve combine for 37 receiving touchdowns on the year.
Defense: Advantage- Mainland
As predicted earlier in the season, Mainland’s defense could and did take them far this season. Tulane commit Rodney Hill Jr plays both ways at linebacker and running back. The former Flagler Palm Coast standout came over and now leads Mainland’s defense with 97 tackles. Dennis King tallied 90 tackles. They also constantly pressure with sacks, and close very quickly with their speed. Florida commit 6’6, 260lbs, 5-star defensive lineman LJ McCray, and Ramon McCollough (offers from Liberty, Charlotte) terrorize on the defensive line with 13 sacks a piece. They’ve got 10 interceptions on the season, including 3 by Zavier Mincey and David Hall a piece.
A major reason that St. Augustine is undefeated at 13-0 is because of their stinging stingy defense. They held Dunbar to fourteen points on Friday. Junior Braylon James has 79 tackles on the season. Jacques Johnson leads the team with 6 sacks. Ja’ki Singleton has been their most consistent playmaker on defense, averaging 9.0 tackles a game with 90 tackles on the season in 10 games. Julian Quintero leads the team with 91 tackles in 12 games, while linebacker Drake Lusk has tallied 88 tackles and 3 interceptions on the season. Lusk registered his second interception in the playoffs alone.
Coaching: Advantage- Even
Mainland: Travis Roland, is an alum of Mainland, helping guide the Bucs to a state championship in 2003 as a linebacker. Roland was an assistant coach at Mainland until taking over at Flagler Palm Coast and guiding them to the playoffs in each of his four seasons (2017-2020) He is responsible for Flagler Palm Coast’s only undefeated regular season in 2017. Since being hired at Mainland in 2021, Roland has directed the Buccaneers to a 13-1 record this year, and an 11-4 record last year. The campaign in 2022 ended in a state runner-up trophy against Lake Wales falling 32-30. He is looking to add another championship ring to his finger, but this time as a coach.
St. Augustine Not only has Brian Braddock achieved an undefeated regular season for the third time in his caching career, he’s looking to cap it with an undefeated overall season ending in a championship. St. Augustine’s Brian Braddock is an alum of St. Augustine as well, playing linebacker, and offensive line for the Jackets from 1996-98. He also was a defensive coordinator at the school from 2010 until being hired at Mandarin in 2013. At Mandarin, Braddock was 23-10 in three seasons including a 12-1 season which is still the best in Mustang history. He would leave Mandarin in 2016, shocking the entire high school football community in Northeast Florida, to replace his former head coach, Joey Wiles. The journey for Braddock has been one of unexpected ends. After state semifinal losses in 2017 against Armwood where St. Augustine went 12-1, and 2020 against Lake Minneola, he’s finally made it over the hump to the title game as a head coach. The next stop on the journey is to keep it rolling, to win it all.
Prediction: These two teams are closely matched in terms of talent. St. Augustine has the advantage at skill positions, while Mainland has the advantage in the trenches. Let’s look at a common opponent for the deciding factor. Both teams played Bartram Trail this year. Mainland came back to win in their game while facing Bartram’s backup quarterback Jaden Weatherly 28-24. St. Augustine on the other hand, defeated Bartram with the Bear’s starting quarterback Riley Trujillo ( UCF commit) in the lineup. Also, St. Augustine started their back up quarterback (Dylan Cook) in the 34-31 win over their rival.
For this reason, I give the edge to St. Augustine. The key however, will be defense. St Augustine has had trouble holding opponents to low scoring outputs, This can’t happen against Mainland. On the other hand, Mainland gave up 198 yards and 2 touchdowns to Bartram running back Laython Biddle in the week 3 matchup. If they don’t stop the run, Devonte Lyons will eat them alive.
St. Augustine 38, Mainland 35
