Jay Stilianou only had to watch warmups to know his Middleburg flag football squad was in for a difficult night against FAMU DRS and Ameari Logan.
“No. 13 [Logan] was unbelievable. As soon as I saw her, I was like, ‘Man, she’s a matchup nightmare,'” Stilianou said.
“And she didn’t disappoint.”
Logan scored two touchdowns and made a crucial interception to lead Tallahassee FAMU Developmental Research School, denying Middleburg 31-13 in Monday night’s Florida High School Athletic Association Region 1-1A girls flag football final at Alan Powers Field in Jacksonville.
FAMU advances to Friday’s FHSAA championship series at Jacksonville Mandarin.
The Baby Rattlers’ Jade Dubose threw four touchdowns — two to Logan and two to Zuraya Wash — in an explosive passing attack that looked deep early and often, overcoming a Middleburg squad that had previously allowed only 19 points all year.
“We kept going to our backs and that would bring everybody in,” FAMU coach James Brown said.
“They kind of forgot about our receivers and we just sent them deep.”
Logan produced one of the night’s most important stops.
With 1:50 until halftime and the score still tied 6-6, Middleburg’s Cheyenne Jenkins intercepted a pass deep in FAMU territory, setting up the Broncos in prime field position. But Logan pulled down her second pick of the night in the end zone to send the teams into the break tied up.
From there, FAMU marched down the field on its first third-quarter possession, scoring on the second touchdown from Dubose to Logan.
The back-breaker came one possession later, when Jaila Young stepped in front of a sideline pass and returned the interception for a FAMU touchdown.
Two Wash touchdowns, set up after short throws inside to Erica Turral, completed FAMU’s scoring.
Middleburg took the early lead on Brooke Swenson’s touchdown pass to Jewel Taylor, but the Baby Rattlers (11-3) struck back with 24 unanswered points.
“We’re used to jumping out on teams,” Brown said.
“This was something that we practiced on the scenario that if we do fall back, there’s still enough time. Keep your character, dig down deep and hope we pull the game out.”
Middleburg scored in the fourth quarter on Swenson’s 66-yard pass to Meghan Bonser, but turnovers and drops hampered the comeback bid.
FAMU advances to Friday’s 1A semifinal against Jensen Beach, with Miami Edison and perennial favorite Tampa Robinson to clash in the other half of the bracket.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
