State of Flagler football: team updates

Palm Coast Observer
Sports

Matanzas looks to finish strong

It only took two losses, though they were division opponents, to thwart the Pirates’ (7-2, 2-2) historic run at a playoff berth. Now, knowing they can only pursue another win to reach eight on the season, which quadruples last year’s total, the curiosity lies in coach Robert Ripley’s team, whether they’ll be up for a game that doesn’t have as much significance to it.

“The kids are the ones that have to want to play,” he said. “We won't know until tomorrow. They have to want to put in the work. It's my job to find something to inspire them to complete the season and go beat another team and win 8 games

On finishing the Pirates’ best season on a high note, Ripley said, “I promise you I want that!”

The Pirates play Pedro Menendez at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at Menendez.

FPC, to recover from near upset

After knowing the result of the other district game, a Flagler Palm Coast (3-6, 1-4) win over Mandarin (9-0, 4-0) would have done nothing to advance them to the playoffs, but it would’ve felt better than losing the way the Bulldogs did. FPC had a chance to knock off the Mustangs’ perfect record, but a controversial call changed the outcome, allowing Mandarin to hold on to a 20-15 win Friday, Oct. 30, at FPC.

With one game left, the Bulldogs still plan to finish until the season is over. Senior Ladale Batson knows this will be his last game, as well as the other seniors, and they intend to teach the young pups a thing or two about never giving up.

“For the seniors, we plan to go out with a big bang to let our under class man know we don't give when going through tough times,” he said. “We fought through some hard times and celebrated through the good times, but we will never stop being Bulldogs, which means we’ll never stop fighting.”

The Bulldogs will play Seabreeze in the season finale at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in Daytona.

Third time’s the charm for Titans

The Flagler Titans Junior Midgets avenged an early-season loss and last year’s conference champion loss to Daytona by beating the Bucs 23-14 to win this year’s East Coast Conference Championship Saturday, Oct. 31, in New Smyrna Beach.

“It’s a great feeling,” head coach Darrell Jones said. “For the last three or four years, it’s been us and Daytona for the ECC Championship. Last year, we beat them during the regular season, but they came back to beat us for the conference championship. This year, they beat us in the regular season (26-24 in triple overtime), and we got them, so it definitely feels great. We worked hard just to get to this point, and I don’t think we’re ready to stop no time soon.”

Jones also said his team had been dealing with injuries all year, and the championship game was the first time everyone played. The Titans will hope to stay injury-free as they take on Riviera Beach in the South East Region playoffs Saturday, Nov. 7, in NSB.

Falcons 8U advance

BOX: Playoff first-round recap

6U (4-3-1): Loss 24-6

8U (6-2): won 33-20

10U (7-2): loss 19-14

12U (2-6): Didn't reach the playoffs

14U (3-4): loss 14-13

The Flagler Falcons, who merged before the season with the Flagler Wolfpack, recently concluded their five seasons, sending four teams to the playoffs. Unfortunately, after the first round, only the 8U team will advance further.

“We had a great season,” director Charlie Washington said. "Somebody was putting in some good work to get four of our five teams into the playoffs. Some people were afraid that the merge wouldn't work out, but we didn't miss a beat."

The The Falcons’ last hope to reach nationals will be against the Gainesville Panthers at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Jackson High School in Jacksonville.

"This week will be our biggest game ever," Washington added. "We're going against the No. 1 team at this level, but we plan to show up and give them a run."