CREEKSIDE - What a difference a week makes. Friday night the Fleming Island Golden Eagles came out looking like a reborn team against the Creekside Knights playing loose, confident, and nothing resembling the team that lost the previous five games. The Golden Eagles attacked the Knights head-on, scoring first and then going punch for punch through all four quarters. Trailing Creekside 49-48 with under a minute to play, the Golden Eagles drove the ball to the 33-yard line with 5.5 seconds left on the clock. Enter the field goal team. Good snap, hold, and kick away. As the ball sailed, the distance was more than enough, but the ball drifted outside the left upright by less than a yard, denying the Golden Eagles the much-needed rut-buster game they sorely needed. Friday night they will line up to take on the Buchholz Bobcats at home. The Bobcats come into the Eagle’s Nest undefeated, the number one team in class 4S district 3.

“We had a pretty good scheme, we had plays to go against what they were doing, the coach was calling good plays, and the offense was executing well and it all worked, but in the end, we just couldn’t pull it through,” said Golden Eagle Quarterback Cibastian Broughton. “This whole week, we had great leadership step up, we started having more fun during practice, which was rare for us this season. It’s more than football. We have to be brothers and friends. It's just having fun with your teammates, and everything is going to fall in place.”

The Golden Eagles didn’t even resemble the shadow of the team from last week as they exuded confidence from the kickoff. With the Knights winning the toss and electing to receive, they thought a quick score would set the tone. After going three downs and punt to get the offense off the field, they quickly realized Fleming Island came to play four quarters of football. The Golden Eagles would be first to light up the scoreboard with Broughton passing to Devaen Boykin for a touchdown pass, 7-0, with Broughton dropping a perfect pass to Boykin to go up 14-7.

With the half coming, Creekside took the kick, then turned on a serious tempo offense, snapping the ball as soon as the officials placed it on the ground and backed away. The new look seemed to stun Fleming Island who went into the lockers locked at 14-14.

“When they went tempo, we were ready for it, but it’s just hard to get substitutions in,” said Golden Eagle Head Coach Chad Parker. “You have a decision to burn those timeouts or save them for the end of the half when you need them. So, we felt we could stop them with the guys we had.”

The third quarter started with a bang with the third play when Broughton ran up the middle, found the Knights asleep at the controls and sprinted 75 yards for another touchdown at 11:09. The extra point attempt was no good, 20-14. Creekside countered with another running touchdown at 8:13 with a good point after finally taking the lead 21-20.

After a Golden Eagle stalled drive and punt, Creekside again struck with the slant pass over the middle for a 55-yard touchdown pass, 28-20.

A muffed punt recovered by Fleming Island’s Sebastian Cruz got Boykin a 15-yard scoring strike and a Tyler Beverly WildCat score to 28-28.

The Knights again picked apart the Golden Eagle defense with both an air and ground attack and their tempo offense to take the lead 35-28 into the fourth quarter. Creekside scored another in the fourth to 42-28 with Broughton hitting Trace Burney on a scoring strike to 42-35.

At 7:02 remaining, Fleming Island’s Jarius Rodgers came full tilt toward Ashenfelder from his blind side. Rodgers chopped down on Ashenfelder’s arm as he tackled the quarterback, dislodging the ball. Rodgers saw the ball and landed on it for a strip sack and recovery setting up Broughton for another rushing touchdown with 6:42 to play, 42-42.

With time dwindling away, the Knights went back on the attack, but Fleming Island offensive center Braden Cunningham went to defense action. Cunningham responded with two key stops inside the 10-yard line.

“I loved our fight tonight,” said Cunningham. “Through the ups and downs, I wouldn’t have it any other way. That momentum shift on that stop was huge. You could feel it on the sidelines, hear it in the stands, you could just feel it.”

Broughton went straight to work and found Jackson in sprint mode to hit a 75-yard touchdown. A botched PAT kick snap left the score 48-42.

With 3:09 left in the game, it all came down to the Golden Eagle defense. As the Knights worked the field, Ashenfelder misfired on a pass and was picked off by Tacori Allen with 1:53 to play. Fleming Island would need to get at least one first down to deny Creekside any chance of getting the ball back. On the first play, on a routine run, the ball came out. The Knights recovered and went back on offense. With 50 remaining, Ashenfelder connected with Eros Taufer. With the good point after kick, the Knights were ahead 49-48 before Fleming Island missed on the field goal finale.