Friday Jay's post season hopes will become clearer after the dust settles on the "War on Highway 4." For Pace and Milton, both teams look to rebound off of losses and clarify what their post season hopes might be as well. Despite a couple of big plays by the Cottondale Hornets's Sheldon Vann, which stung Jay early on, the Royals established a running game and make some defensive adjustments to post a 36-20 win on homecoming night. Ricky Cofield scored five touchdowns, while the defense created a whopping seven turnovers in the win. Now the Royals (3-3, 0-1 in District 1-A) find themselves in a must win situation as they host Baker (4-3, 0-1) at 7 p.m. Friday. With a loss by the Gators or Royals will virtually wipe out any post-season hopes. Jay will close out the district schedule with a game at Freeport on Nov. 2, which will also be a must win to keep any playoff hopes alive. For Milton, Friday was a homecoming game the Panthers would rather soon forget. Gulf Breeze scored 10 unanswered points, including a 36-yard field goal by Lucas Zalar with 1:57 left to cage the Panthers 23-20. "We kept shooting ourselves in the foot the entire night," said Milton head coach Chafan Marsh. "We were looking to go up by two touchdowns and turnovers just killed us. "We kept having mental breakdowns and mental mistakes." The Panthers played without FSU-commitment Isaiah Jones, who was suspended for the contest. Marsh is not sure if Jones will play this Friday when the Panthers travel to Washington to face the Wildcats at 7 p.m. At 4-3 overall and 2-1 in District 1-6A the Panthers find themselves in a pretty tight district battle where wins are very important. "We need to have a good week of practice," Marsh said. "A district game is a district game and all of them are tough matchups. "We need to take care of business." Taking care of business is something Pace has to do this Friday as well after a heartbreaking 29-28 loss to Escambia High Friday. Pace looked poised to go 4-0 in District 1-6A after Tommy McMillion blocked a punt and returned it 35 yards for the score, but the Gators had other ideas. With 44 seconds remaining T.J. Myers found Shaquille Rogers on a 65-yard touchdown pass to cap an 80-yard drive for the win as Danikiee Hollowell tacked on the two point conversion. This week Pace will host Tate High School at 7:30 p.m. The Aggies enter the game at 0-6 on the season and 0-4 in District 1-6A, but they have proved to be a handful for district foes earlier this season.
District 1 6-A Team Overall District Pace 5-2 3-1 Escambia 4-3 3-1 Milton 4-3 2-1 Pensacola 3-2 2-1 Pine Forest 3-2 2-1 Washington 1-5 0-3 Tate 0-6 0-4
District 2 6-A Navarre 5-1 2-0 Ft. Walton 5-1 2-0 Crestview 3-4 1-1 Choctaw 2-5 1-2 Niceville 3-3 1-2 Mosley 3-3 0-2
District 1 5-A West Florida 6-0 2-0 Gulf Breeze 3-3 1-1 Arnold 2-4 1-1 Bay 2-3 0-1 Rutherford 1-5 0-1
District 1 1-A Northview 4-3 1-0 Freeport 3-3 1-0 Baker 4-3 0-1 Jay 3-3 0-1
Week 7 Scores Jay 36, Cottondale 20 Gulf Breeze 23, Milton 20 Escambia 29, Pace 28 Catholic 26, Walton 0 Pensacola 32, Tate 14 Pine Forest 63, Washington 0
Local games of interest – Week 8 Oct. 18 West Florida at Rutherford – 7 p.m. Pensacola at Pine Forest – 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 Tate at Pace – 7:30 p.m. Baker at Jay – 7 p.m. Milton at Washington – 7 p.m. Gulf Breeze at Bay – 7 p.m. Navarre at Crestview – 7 p.m. Madison Co. at Catholic – 7:30 p.m. Northview at Freeport – 7 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Jay notches big win