Each week we’ll go around the coverage area and give you a football player and/or coach quotes following the games. Here are newspaper quotes from Week #9 action.
Nease (Ponte Vedra) quarterback Leighton Alley following the Panther’s 23-20 win in overtime against St. Augustine which snapped the Yellow Jackets’ 50-game district winning streak and also put Nease in the playoffs for the first time since 2008
“That’s everyone’s dream. … Bartram (Trail) came close, but we wanted them undefeated. We wanted them not to lose a county game. We wanted to be the ones to stop the streak.” – Florida Times-Union
Panthers’ head coach Tim Krause after Nease rallied from 10 down with 4:39 to play to beat St. Augustine for just the sixth time in school history (35 attempts)
“I’ve been a part of a lot of special wins since I’ve been doing this, but this is an all-timer. The change that we have experienced as a program from last year, we got beat 58-0 last year and they scored on the last play of the game to make it 58-0, just showed how they dominated us from the start to the finish. You control what you can control and compartmentalize all the other stuff. “When everyone around is telling you they’ve won 50 straight [district] games, kids in school or at the gas station saying they almost feel sorry for you for having to play them. If we get over that part, we can do this.” – Florida Times-Union
Mandarin (Jacksonville) football coach Brian Braddock after the Mustangs clinched their first district title since 2004 with a 44-41 comeback win against Spruce Creek (Port Orange) on a 55-yard TD pass with 43 seconds to play
“There’s three groups [that really deserved it]. The community. This is a community that offers such great support and that had dwindled away [over the years], that’s huge for them. And the school. I remember at a game two years ago, I said ‘where’s the crowd?’ Why are they so quiet? Tonight, the place was going berserk. The stands were full. And then these kids.” – Florida Times-Union
Clay (Green Cove Springs) coach Josh Hoekstra following Bilal Ally’s 229 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Blue Devils stayed unbeaten in 5A-District 5; Ally has 965 yards rushing in his last three games
“Our offensive line did a great job opening holes and making lanes for Bilal all night. With the best back in Northeast Florida, it’s no secret we’re going to run the ball over and over and we couldn’t do it without those guys up front.” – Florida Times-Union
Buchholz senior defensive back Marcus Clayton, who had a 79-yard interception return for a TD, following the Bobcats’ 31-21 win at Fleming Island (Orange Park) which clinched their first district title in 11 years
“It feels really great to make history. We just wanted to make a statement – 2016, our class. We wanted to do things other teams haven’t done.” – The Gainesville Sun
Buchholz coach Mark Whittemore thanked his defense, which pitched a shutout in the second half and forced six three-and-out possessions
“To be honest, I think we won defensively. They had some success in the first half, but the tale of the tape was won on defense. We had three fourth-quarter comebacks against quality teams. It drains you. Now it has been accomplished from the standpoint of getting there, now we can focus on having a little fun.” – The Gainesville Sun
Gainesville coach Mark Latsko following GHS’ 35-33 win at Leesburg, which included stopping a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter to keep the Purple Hurricanes’ postseason hopes alive
“Our defense made one last play when we had to have it. We’re happy to get out of here with the win. We used our stable of running backs and we had challenged our offensive line to play better than they had last week and they rose to the challenge.” – The Gainesville Sun
Gainesville’s Trey Covert, who played most of the game at quarterback against the Yellow Jackets and finished with 118 yards rushing and a TD on 17 carries
“I knew with a young quarterback that I might be needed to step up and make plays and that’s what I tried to do. I just tried to keep playing hard.” – The Gainesville Sun
Dunnellon coach Price Harris, who celebrated his 41st birthday with the Tigers’ first win over South Sumter (Bushnell) since 2003 and also secured their first district title since 2010 with a 27-7 road win
“We had a lot of kids step up tonight. We got a lot of big plays. Everyone likes to talk about how good we are on offense, but our defense has also been very good this year. To come in here and play like we did against a program like South Sumter and hold them to seven points is not easy to do.” – Ocala Star-Banner
