The St. Augustine HS Yellow Jackets beat Bartram Trail High School on a last second field goal

On Friday night (9/22) the St. Augustine High School Yellow Jackets football team played the highly rated Bartram Trail HS Bears (Florida Class 7A) and their two QB attacking offense with Joey Gatewood and Riley Smith, two of the highest publicized QB’s in the State of Florida.  The game was the first for the Yellow Jackets since Hurricane Irma put a hold on the season two weeks earlier.  That didn’t stop the Yellow Jackets from jumping out to a touchdown on their first drive of the game on the arm of Jackets QB – Austin Reed (#14) connecting to Karim Brown on a 22 yard TD.  The Jackets jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the 2nd quarter when Jackets defensive back Jaden McDowall intercepted a Riley Smith pass and returned it for a 70 yard touchdown.  The Bears quickly responded with a score of their own and brought  the game to a close 21-14 at the half.

The score remained 21-14 until the 4th quarter when the Bears took advantage of a strong run defense and slowed the Jackets.  They were able to score on two consecutive drives to lead the game 28-21 over the Jackets with less than 4 minutes left.  That’s when Jackets QB Austin Reed and the rest of the offensive passing game took off.  Taking the ball from the Jackets 30 yard line, Austin completed 2 passes out of 3, including a 59 yard touchdown to Karim Brown (his 3rd of the game) to tie the game at 28.  The Bears were unable to drive the ball to score or kill the clock to send the game into overtime, so they had to settle for a punt from their own 45 yard line. 

The punt by the Bears was a good one that rolled to the Jackets 14 yard line where the Jackets had to start from with 29 seconds left.  The Jackets once again relied on QB Austin Reed and the Jackets passing game to get them down the field into field goal position.  Austin completed 3 straight passes of 11, 30 and 20 yards to get the Jackets to the Bears 25.  After a Bears penalty, the Jackets kicker Elijah Ryan attempted the field goal from 37 yards out and put it right down the middle to win the game 31-28 and improve the Jackets to 3-0 on the season and 19-0 all time over Bartram Trail.  The streak survives for another year!

St. Augustine High School Quarterback finished the game as the passing leader going 19-29, 373 yards and 3 TD’s in the win.  Next up for the SAHS Yellow Jackets are District opponent Englewood High School (Jacksonville).  Click HERE for quarterback Austin Reed’s passing highlights from the Bartram Trail game.

Game winning FG – Elijah Ryan, Austin Reed on the hold