Raines rallies to take 4A title

Jacksonville Raines bottled up top-ranked Cocoa and produced just enough points to win a 13-10 defensive duel for the Class 4A football state championship on Thursday night.

Cocoa (11-2) scored its only touchdown to take a 10-6 lead with just over nine minutes to go in the game at Camping World Stadium. The second-ranked Vikings (13-1) answered with a decisive drive fueled by big plays from senior quarterback Ivory Durham IV.

He was chased into the end zone on a third-and-17 play and scrambled out for a 39-yard gain into Cocoa territory. Raines was penalized 15 yards for a blindside block on the play, but the chains were moved and the Vikings marched closer when Durham bought time with his quick feet and lobbed a 33-yard pass to Raynell Killian.

Two plays later, Durham threw off his back foot to wideout Kamree Nobel for an 8-yard TD pass for the game’s final points with 5:41 to go.

Cocoa, which fumbled away a chance to score a second quarter TD at the goal line, threatened late. But Raines stopped the Tigers again just outside the Vikings’ 30 in the final minute to claim its second state championship two decades after it won its first in 1997.

Heavy favorite Madison County captured its third state championship and finished undefeated for the first time, but the Cowboys had to work harder than most predicted to beat Blountstown 35-20 in the Class 1A final.

The Cowboys (14-0) trailed 17-14 at the half. Madison County forced a punt four plays into the second half and Derrick Staten’s 29-yard return to the Blountstown 22 sparked the rally. A 1-yard Teyon Henderson touchdown run gave Madison a 21-17 lead.

“I told ‘em at halftime, ‘You’ve got to go win it. They’re not going to give it to you,” Cowboys coach Mike Coe said. “Coach (Greg) Jordan had a great plan for (Blountstown).”

The Tigers (11-2) threatened to reclaim the lead when Jamal Howard ran 34 yards into Madison territory on a reverse on the final play of the third quarter. But Blounstown coughed up a fumble three plays later.

Henderson burst through a gaping hole up the middle for a 67-yard TD run to give Madison a 28-17 lead with 9:46 to go. He scored for a third time with 4:40 remaining.

Attendance was 3,717.