- September 28, 2024
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For the first time since 2016, The First Academy football has claimed a district championship after rolling past rivals Orlando Christian Prep, 39-13.
"We're feeling great," said Royals coach Jeff Conaway. "Anytime you can win a district game, it's huge for morale and just the momentum of the season, but anytime you can clinch the district, that's a big deal. It's something that was on our list of goals, and as a team, we're able to check that one off and maybe refocus a little bit and move on to the next goal."
The Royals (6-0) claimed the Class 1A, District 6 championship with this win and their Week Four win over Melbourne Central Catholic, despite still having one more district game to play at Holy Trinity Episcopal. Because the Tigers lost to both OCP and MCC, even if TFA loses that game, it would hold the tiebreaker over the other possible 2-1 teams. This win not only brought home the district crown but also clinched a playoff spot for the Royals.
Senior quarterback Salomon Georges Jr. led the way for The First Academy, throwing three touchdowns on the night — hitting Orange Observer preseason offensive player of the year Demetrice McCray twice for scores and finding Furman commit Evan James for a long TD pitch and catch as well. On the Ground, running back Dane Thompkins rushed for three touchdowns himself in the win.
Although the stats and final score show a dominant victory for the Royals, that wasn't the case early on in this game. The Warriors (2-4) got on the board first, taking a lead in the second quarter and even kept it a one-score game into the second half, thanks to turnovers and penalties from TFA. Conaway couldn't quite put his finger on why his team came out flat in this rivalry game.
"I'm not real sure the reason why we started this way," he said. "I know throughout the game I was really challenging our guys to just have more life, more energy. Some coaches may call it being flat, but I don't know why we would be flat playing a team like OCP. That's what we were; just a little flat. We were kind of just going through the motions, and there was not a whole lot of emotion. I told the guys after the game, you can't cheat the game of football. It doesn't matter who you're playing. If you don't have the enthusiasm and the emotion to play fast, physical and focused football, bad things can happen. That's how you can get exposed and that's exactly what happened early on in this game. ... If we're going to build the kind of momentum that we need to build to beat good teams, we can't have those lulls. And I can attribute some of that to us being a really young team, only having nine seniors with a couple of out tonight due to injuries. We just have to generate and develop our verbal and vocal leaders to avoid this kind of night. Right now we're not doing a really good job of that."
Ultimately, the Royals responded in the third quarter to their coaches' challenge and showed why they're one of the best teams in the state. After allowing a short rushing touchdown — on a wild sequence that saw TFA stop OCP on the goal and turn the ball over on downs then fumble on the very next play and then finally allow the Warriors to score on a 4th and inches — The First Academy scored three unanswered touchdowns and took full control of the game.
This sort of display, both in the first half and in the final portion of the game is why Georges Jr. believes this team has more room to grow.
"I would say we haven't reached our peak yet," the senior QB said. "That's the scary part I think, because when we do reach our peak, I really think we're going to be unstoppable."
The First Academy faithful will hope its Royals can reach that potential quickly because next up for the Royals is probably their biggest test of the season so far; TFA hosts Georgia powerhouse Rabun Gap-Nacoochee High (4-2) in Week Seven.
