LAKELAND — Steve Stanley threw three touchdown passes, ran for three touchdowns and intercepted a pass, leading Victory Christian to a 48-30 win over Admiral Farragut that clinched the Class 1B-5 district championship.

The Storm (8-1, 5-0) built a 41-24 lead in a first half that had a combined 656 yards of offense. In its last six plays of the half, Victory scored four touchdowns, including on passes of 70 yards to Tanner Bowling and 57 yards to Mitch Choquette.

"That's been our moniker all year long," coach Jeff Schaum said. "But they got us on some big plays, too. We didn't expect that."

Admiral Farragut (5-2, 5-1) got a touchdown pass, an 80-yard punt return and an interception return for a touchdown from Josh Burch.

Ledger

ST. PETERSBURG — By the time Admiral Farragut's players had given coach Chris Miller his obligatory Gatorade shower, the game had long been over.

Led by an explosive ground game, the Blue Jackets routed Cambridge 27-0 to clinch their first playoff berth since 2003.

Freshman Todrick Macon had 148 yards on 19 carries, including a 33-yard touchdown in the fourth to cap the scoring, for the Blue Jackets (5-1, 5-0 B-5). Cortavius Givins, who is only in eighth grade, broke off touchdown runs of 19 and 51 yards and finished with 91 yards on six carries.

Cambridge (3-4, 3-2) didn't get inside the Farragut 20 until a 37-yard pass from Hayden Kelley to Robbie Robertson coupled with a face mask got the ball to the 16 with 43 seconds remaining in the game. But Kelley, 6-of-15 for 91 yards, threw his second interception of the game two plays later.

Max Martinez, Times correspondent

ST. PETERSBURG — Admiral Farragut Academy coach Chris Miller had no idea what to expect this season.

In the spring, the Blue Jackets' game was canceled because of lightning. The regular-season opener was canceled for the same reason. The following week an opponent backed out of a game.

"It was really frustrating," Miller said. "We have a young team and needed game experience. It was not the way you want to start off."

So it was expected Admiral Farragut would be sluggish in its delayed season opener, a 24-10 loss to Northside Christian.

Since then the unexpected has happened. The Blue Jackets have been winning — a lot.

Admiral Farragut has won four straight, the second-longest streak in the county, and can secure a playoff spot in Class B, District 5 with a win over Cambridge tonight.

"I think our confidence is at an all-time high," Miller said.

There are a few other things Miller can attribute to the turnaround.

For starters, the Blue Jackets (4-1, 4-0) dropped in classification from A to B.

"We were one of the smallest schools in Class A and were playing some strong programs like Fort Meade," Miller said. "Now we're out the way of those teams and in a classification that we really belong in."

Another key was having Josh Burch healthy.

A state champion in the triple jump, Burch is AFA's most versatile — and athletic — player. But he missed four games last year with a broken hand.

This season, Miller moved Burch from receiver to quarterback and he has responded with five touchdown passes and three rushing touchdowns. He also has scored three times on returns.

"I think everyone has had a desire to get better," Burch said. "As for me, I wanted the ball in my hands this year and wanted to be a leader."

If the Blue Jackets win tonight, they will secure their first playoff appearance since 2003. And that would set up a game Oct. 30 against Lakeland Victory Christian for the district title.

Burch is thinking beyond that.

"We don't want to just make the playoffs," he said. "We want to go deep into the playoffs. We're trying to go big this year."

ST. PETERSBURG — Admiral Farragut gave its students and alumni a happy homecoming Friday night with its victory over Santa Fe Catholic High School.

The Blue Jackets (4-1, 4-0) opened the scoring late in the first quarter as running back Toddrick Macon capped an eight-play drive with a 7-yard touchdown. Just a few minutes later, quarterback Josh Burch took the Crimson Hawks' ensuing punt 80 yards down the sideline.

But the rout wasn't quite ready to commence just yet.

Santa Fe Catholic (4-3, 1-3) made the most of a couple of miscues by the Blue Jackets, including a fumble deep in their own territory to even the game 14-14 by halftime.

But on the Crimson Hawks' first possession of the second half, Demetrious Lewis recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to kick-start a 27-point third quarter for the Blue Jackets.

But Burch was the star of the night, as he came up big on offense, defense and special teams. In the third quarter, he hooked up with Cortavious Givins and Robert Goddard for touchdowns, and returned a second Crimson Hawks punt for a score.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Burch intercepted a Santa Fe Catholic pass that led to a 43-yard field goal by Sean Covington.

The Blue Jackets won their third straight and remain undefeated in Class B, District 5.

Relying on its ground game, Admiral Farragut (3-1, 3-0) got some big plays and built a 37-0 lead at the half. Toddrick Macon rushed for touchdowns of 70 and 60 yards. Josh Burch threw for a touchdown, ran for one and returned a kickoff for another.

A running clock was used in the second half.

"Definitely pleased with the way we came out and played," Blue Jackets coach Chris Miller said. "We talked about getting off to a fast start and that's what we finally did tonight."

Times staff

ST. PETERSBURG — Sometimes it takes a punch in the mouth to get a team started. After host Admiral Farragut gave up the first score, it rattled off 34 straight points.

"We didn't really make any adjustments schemewise," Blue Jackets coach Chris Miller said. "It was a matter of becoming more physical."

The Crusaders, who got 200 yards rushing from DeJuan Wright, capped a 12-play drive with Jaylin Coleman hitting Armani Lonardo with a 2-yard scoring pass.

Josh Burch started the AFA rally, scoring on a 30-yard run. After an interception, AFA's Reyshawn Jenkins ran in from 5 yards out.

"Their defense came out in a different alignment than we practiced, but after we corrected it we were able to run the ball," said Miller, who had five players rush for more than 30 yards.

Nathan Cowan, Times correspondent

Admiral Farragut 33, Calvary Christian 15: Admiral Farragut threw the ball just twice in its road tilt at Calvary Christian, but the Blue Jackets didn't need to air it out in a 33-15 victory over the Warriors.

Admiral (1-1, 1-0) had five touchdown runs and built a 26-0 lead by halftime to rush past Calvary.

"Last week, we were really jittery and had a lot of penalties," Admiral coach Chris Miller said. "We worked all week on cleaning that up, and we really worked on our running game. …Our offensive line was outstanding tonight. We had over 300 yards rushing."

Reyshawn Jenkins rushed into the end zone from 12 yards out for the Blue Jackets' first score. Later, quarterback Josh Burch scampered into the end zone from 57 yards away, and Toddrick Macon had touchdown runs of 4 and 15 yards in the first half to give Admiral a sizable lead at halftime.

Calvary (0-3, 0-1) made it 26-15 after Johnny Hubbard scored on a 2-yard run in the third quarter and hooked up with Trent Trask for a 35-yard touchdown throw in the fourth.

Admiral, though, put the game away with Macon's third touchdown of the night, this one coming from 3 yards out.

Macon finished with 66 yards on nine carries. Burch was Admiral's leading rusher after gaining 89 yards on eight carries.

Hubbard was 8-for-18 passing for 127 yards and a touchdown for Calvary.

ST. PETERSBURG — Northside Christian used its running game to capitalize on miscues by Admiral Farragut in a 24-10 win Friday night.

Three Mustangs scored rushing touchdowns. Senior Chris Culbreth scored the first on a 2-yard run in the first quarter, giving the Mustangs a 9-0 lead after a bad snap on a punt resulted in a safety.

The Blue Jackets answered with a 39-yard strike from senior Josh Burch to sophomore Reyshawn Jenkins just before the half, and freshman Sean Covington made a 28-yard field goal early in the third quarter to give them their only lead.

Then the Mustangs took over.

Junior Jimmy VanDeilen's 2-yard touchdown gave the Mustangs the lead for good. Junior Jeremy Smith added a 5-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"It's all about the line," VanDeilen said. "Our line is ridiculous. We can score with anybody when they give us a great push up front and open holes for us."

The Mustangs forces five fumbles, recovering one. The Blue Jackets committed 19 penalties totaling 123 yards.

"That's the whole game right there," Blue Jackets coach Chris Miller said. "The mistakes killed us, and it's a credit to Northside."

The Mustangs, however, did not play mistake-free football, turning the ball over four times.

"We had the run game working tonight," Mustangs coach Andre Dobson said, "but we shot ourselves in the foot a few times with long drives that we couldn't finish. We fix those mistakes and we're a strong team to play with."

Admiral Farragut was forced to cancel last week’s season opener against Lakeland Christian because of heavy lightning in the Lakeland area.
“We just couldn’t find a way to work it out,” Blue Jackets coach Chris Miller said. “We had a lot of kids who were out of town on Labor Day weekend and our bye weeks did not match up.”
That was bad enough. Then Admiral Farragut found out that this week’s opponent, Foundation Academy in Winter Garden, backed out of a game. That leaves the Blue Jackets with just eight games in the regular season.
To make matters worse, Admiral Farragut had its spring game canceled because of lightning. The Blue Jackets only game so far was a preseason win against Bradenton St. Stephen’s two weeks ago.
“It’s getting ridiculous,” Miller said. “It seems like the football gods do not want us to play. Hopefully, we can schedule another team toward the end of the season, but it might be tough.”