South Walton Seahawks in Shootout for Playoff

[DCFinSCB]

Chances of seeing anything about this in the Walton Sun, close to 0%. Honestly, what the heck happened to the Sports Section???

 

[Miss Critter]

The story from today's Daily News:

South Walton wins shootout to claim first district title

November 11, 2008 - 1:20AM
By RANDY DICKSON
Florida Freedom Newspapers
(850) 682-6524|randyd@crestviewbulletin.com
SANTA ROSA BEACH - There's a new sheriff in District 1-2B football.
Cody Adams bulled his way to paydirt from 8 yards out to lead South Walton to a 6-0 win over Baker in the second quarter of Monday's District 1-2B shootout and give the Seahawks the district title.
Baker earned the right to meet South Walton for the title by way of a 6-0 win over Vernon in the first quarter of the shootout. The Gators are the district runner-up.
But the night belonged to the home team as the Seahawks made history with their first football title.
Adams appeared to be stopped for a 3-yard loss on his game-winning run. Surrounded by a host of Gator defenders, the 205-pound quarterback bowed his neck and pushed through the pile for the score with 6:50 left in the quarter.
"I was just thinking don't go down," Adams said. "I have to find a way to score here so we can win the district championship.
"It's a big deal to win. We finally got it done."
Seahawk coach David Barron has come to expect the unexpected from Adams.
"We always accuse him of making up plays," Barron said. "But he's a football player and that's what football players do.
"This is what we've been building for four years and it's what we needed. Now the rest of the folks that come along behind them have a high bar to reach."
Before the Seahawk offense got started, it was the defense that did the job holding the Gators to a minus-2 yards on their first possession.
A steady diet of fullback Bryant Adams mixed in with some plays from David Bazylak allowed the Seahawks to move the ball 44 yards to set up the Cody Adams touchdown.
Baker tried to answer as Marcus Jones broke off a 54-yard run to give the Gators a first down at the Seahawk 25. That was the extent of the Baker offense, as on the next play the Gators fumbled the handoff exchange from Cameron Domangue to Jones and Tyler Brielmayer recovered it for the Seahawks.
From there, it was just a matter of South Walton running the ball with Cody Adams and Bazylak to kill the clock and seal the win.
In their win over the Yellow Jackets, the Gators took advantage of three big Vernon penalties for 28 yards on the game-winning drive that covered 48 yards.
The rest was Domangue, who had a run of 19 yards and scored the winner from 8 yards out.
The real story of the quarter was the Baker defense that twice turned the Yellow Jackets away on fourth-down plays.
Blake Bollinger was a force in the middle as the Gators shut down Vernon's inside running game of Belton Snider and John Johnson.
When the Yellow Jackets were forced to pass, Christian Mainor was the man of the hour breaking up third and fourth down passes on Vernon's final possession to help seal the win for the Gators.
"I was real proud of the way we played against Vernon," Baker coach Bob Kellogg said. "We got after a very good football team and shut them down, which was hard for us to do the first time.
"We didn't play real well in the second quarter. I don't know if we just weren't as focused, but we made some mistakes. But the biggest problem we had against them is they (the Seahawks) are just so big."
Kellogg was philosophical about the second-place finish.
"I told the kids you are in the playoffs and everybody starts 0-0," he said. "If you win you keep on playing, and if you lose you go home."

Excellent job, guys!!!! See you in the playoffs!

 

[Jdarg]

Seahawks!!!

 

[Romeosmydog]

Go Hawks!
What a blast...and we got to see Shallowsnole .

 

[DuneLaker]

Way to go South Walton Seahawks!!! Thanks for confirming our place on the map as the number one place to be.

 

[Bobby J]

How about that break away play by Baker!? Who was that kid that came from behind with a last minute shoe string diving tackle? That one play saved the entire game/season for South Walton. Wow! Who needs college or pro football? That was the most exciting game I have seen in years!

 

[Miss Critter]

From today's Daily News:

Seahawks Relish Program's First District Title

By ADAM PRUIETT
Florida Freedom Newspapers
(850) 315-4484 | adamp@nwfdailynews.com
SANTA ROSA BEACH - For Senior Night, the elder statesmen of the South Walton football team were asked to write their fondest memory of the program for a bio that was read as each was honored for their services.
According to coach David Barron, his seniors might as well have been describing one of the biggest keys to success of their groundbreaking season.
"I guarantee at least half of the responses were: ?Good times in the field house with my teammates,' " Barron said. "They've got a special chemistry about them. You literally have to drive these mugs out of the locker room."
Indeed, there's a camaraderie and trust among the Seahawks that's iron-clad. No conversation about the team's breakout success this season can get very far without the team's bond arising.
"It's really just a bunch of brothers playing football," senior Spencer Martin said.
They've shown each other so much brotherly love that Barron can hardly rattle off anymore a list of accomplishments that includes a slew of program firsts.
"Good gosh, it would take a page to list them all," he said.
The most important perhaps are the school's first winning season - a no-doubt-about-it 7-2 - and its first District 1-2B championship, which the Seahawks won in a shootout over Vernon and Baker on Monday. In an atmosphere that Barron described as "freaking electric," host South Walton downed the Gators 6-0 to secure a place in school history.
"It was really something special," Martin said. "It was a big deal to all of us."
Barron said the pride he felt for his squad and particularly the seniors who dealt with their fair share of hard times in the past was "indescribable." The shootout couldn't have been more fitting for a team that's won four games this season by three points or less.
"It just makes me proud as pudding that the coaches and players got it done in 12 minutes," Barron said.
It was yet another testament to the team's unity that it pulled together in such pressurized circumstances. Senior Rance Hill, a transfer from Louisiana, said he noticed it right away upon his arrival.
"The first time I came out I knew we were going to be successful," he said. "I feel closer to my friends here than anywhere I've been."
South Walton plays Friday at Sneads (3-6), a team it's never beaten on the road, before the Seahawks host their first playoff game against Bozeman.
"We're in uncharted waters as we speak," Barron said.