North Santa Rosa

Even with dissapointing finish, Royals season still a major success

Last Friday night, the Royals got trounced. Baker outplayed Jay in every positional unit. Taking a 42-0 score into halftime, Baker played mostly backups the entire second half. From the beginning of the game, the Royals were outmanned and outgunned. And if all you saw was Friday night’s showing, you would not be very impressed with the 2017 Royals. Friday night was not indicative of this football team. Baker, with their 21 seniors, played like the #2 team in the state.  They played like a team that has been in the playoffs. Jay was simply overmatched and couldn’t respond to the haymakers Baker was able to throw.  But again, if this was the only game you saw the Royals play, you are missing out. Luckily one game does not define a season. A quick review of what these Royals accomplished throughout the season is needed if Friday night was all one had seen of these Royals.

*10/6-Royals beat Northview at home by a score of 49-18 (Win was first over Northview since 2004.  Also, this win was first of five game winning streak)

*10/20-Royals have big homecoming victory of playoff-bound J.U. Blackshear 44-7.

*10/27-Royals start brutal 3 game stretch in 8 days by traveling to Freeport and ruining their senior night and climbing FHSAA polls beating the Bulldogs 40-21 in what should be considered the game of the year.

*10/30 -Royals run Rocky Bayou out of Merle V. North on a  Monday night.

*11/3-Royals traveled to Pensacola and defeated very talented Lighthouse Christian by a score of 51-14.

*Sunday, 11/5, Royals find out that they are officially in the state playoffs for the first time since Elijah Bell was head coach in 2007. (Jay lost to Mayo Lafayette in first round of playoffs that year, 14-13).

The 2017 Royals ended their season at Baker and were disappointed. However, when one looks at what this team accomplished and thinks back to when this team was 1-4,  a playoff birth was out of the question.

This team has no reason to hang their heads. They have much to be proud of. The community of Jay should be proud of how it came out in full force to support this team.

2017 was a successful year due to the hardwork of the seniors on this team as well as the underclassmen that will be called on to lead next season.

And even though Friday night didnt go the way we would’ve wanted it to go, when looking at the season in its entirety, it’s not hard to understand why there is a buzz around Jay football that hasn’t been around here in a long, long time.

2018 football season can’t get here fast enough.

Go Royals!

Posted by on Nov 13 2017. Filed under High School, Jay, Local, Sports, Top News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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