Fleming Island – The Fleming Golden Eagles rallied back from 17 points in the 4th quarter to get a key district win on Friday night over the red hot Creekside Knights.
Trailing 23-6 in the 4th quarter, Fleming Island went to work. Sometimes all it takes is one play to spark a team, and Senior safety Devin Grind got it going with a key interception that he’d run all the way back for a touchdown. A block in the back negated the call, but it did leave Fleming Island in prime scoring position.
A few plays later, Fleming Island quarterback Grant Travis threw his first touchdown of the night to junior wide receiver Caleb Jones to cut the lead to 23-12 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.
On the ensuing drive, Dedric Walker would potentially make the playoffs of the night, a strip and fumble return of Creekside runningback Preston Strope to cut the lead to the 23-18 with 8:16 remaining.
Creekside wouldn’t be able to maintain an offensive drive and would be forced to punt it back to Fleming Island 6:20 left in the game. A Creekside defense that would sack Fleming Island’s Grant Travis six times seemed like it was out of answers in the 4th quarter.
Runningback Timothy Thomas for Fleming Island would catch a screen pass from Grant Travis and take it down to the Creekside 19 yard line. Back to back penalties from Creekside would allow put Fleming Island into a 1st and goal situation an inch from the goal line. Runningback TK Kocak would muscle his way into the endzone and allow Fleming Island to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Creekside’s bid to regain the lead would fall short as Devin Grind would come up with his second interception to shut the door on any last minute heroics for Creekside. Fleming would take a few knees on offense to run the clock out and secure the 26-23 comeback victory for the Golden Eagles.
Fleming will move to 4-0 on the season as Creekside falls to 2-2. Fleming Island will travel to Oakleaf next week as Creekside looks to bounce back against Nease.
