FORT WALTON BEACH — This time Choctawhatchee couldn’t dig itself out of a second-half hole.
After erasing a 13-point deficit to Columbia in the region semifinals and an 11-point deficit to St. Augustine in the region finals to make their first Final 4 since 2014, the Big Green coughed up a couple of fumbles and fell behind by two dozen points to defending champion American Heritage en route to a 31-14 loss in the 4A state semifinals at Joe Etheredge Stadium.
“We ran into a buzzsaw tonight,” Choctaw coach Frank Beasley said. “You can’t spot these guys points and you can’t turn the ball over. We turned the ball over and it just wasn’t our night. We’ve had our nights in the past but we knew if we spotted them some points, it’d be hard to come back because they’re so good in the secondary. They have five Division I defensive backs.”
Quarterback Tamen Zabetakis had success on the ground with 143 rushing yards but he threw for just 29 yards, his longest completion was a 10-yard touchdown to Von Keller. American Heritage, meanwhile, racked up over 360 yards of offense against a vaunted Big Green defense that hadn’t allowed a single foe to top 30 points.
Even with the disappointing ending, it’s hard not to reflect on the historic run.
After all, the Big Green celebrated an Okaloosa County title, a District 2-4A championship and a Region 1-4A crown. The Class of 2026 will go down as the winningest class in Choctaw history, the seniors winning 39 games, making four straight region final appearances, winning a region championship and finishing with nine playoff wins.
Beasley said he’ll have exit interviews with each and every one of them in January to learn what they liked and what they didn’t in order to improve the program and keep the momentum flowing. He also told his seniors this is just a piece of the pie of life, and they’ll all go on to do much bigger things than what they did on the gridiron in kelly green.
“You have left a legacy on this program,” Beasley told his seniors in the postgame huddle. “You’ve done an outstanding job of setting the standard. I’ve heard a lot of people say this is the shining moment of their life. This is going to be one of the best times of your life. I personally love that idea, but this is not your shining moment. Your shining moment is when you walk out of here a better person than when you walked in and you do great things in life. You go on and visit us in four years, you stand on that sideline like other guys do. You’ve learned so much and you’re a good dad, you’re a good person. You’ve done things for this community. And that’s hard. This is not the pinnacle. Choctaw football is not the pinnacle of what you’re going to do. It’s just a piece of the pie.
“What you do after this is going to define you. You’ve got a lot of directions you can go.”
The direction American Heritage is going is south, the Patriots set to make the nine-hour drive home and then next Saturday to Miami, where they’ll compete against Jones for the state title. A big reason why is Leon Strawder, who quarterbacked Miami Northwestern to last year’s 3A state championship and transferred to the Patriots once Dia Bell’s season was done in early September.
Against Choctaw, Strawder threw for three touchdowns and ran for another for the visiting Patriots, who led 17-0 at halftime and opened the second half with a 58-yard touchdown connection between Strawder and Brandon Bennett.
Over the next 22 minutes of play, Choctaw got creative, secured two onside kicks and outscored the Patriots 14-7 with a 10-yard touchdown connection between Zabetakis and Keller and an 80-yard kickoff return to the house by Amir Reese. But the Big Green couldn’t get it to a two-score game.
A 50-yard Zabetakis touchdown run that would’ve made it 31-21 with 11 minutes left to play was called back by a late holding penalty, a touchdown pass in the end zone was dropped and a 26-yard field goal hit the upright, leaving the Patriots room to play it conservative and eat the fourth-quarter clock.
“That’s a really good football over there and we knew it,” Beasley told his team. “We had to play near perfect to beat them. They’re the defending state champion for a reason. Here’s what I liked about it. You battled, you battled, you battled, you battled and we we never quit. You just kept going and kept going. But now you underclassmen, you know what it takes. Two or three underclassman walked up to me and said, ‘Coach, we’ll be back.’ I truly believe that.
“Now you know what it takes to compete at that level. We’ll get there. We’re still climbing.”
While the Big Green lose Legree, Zabetakis, the Alloway brothers, Alante Reese, Jabari Weeks, Jordan Figueroa and other key players, they return the Marracco brothers, Amir Reese, Dante Whidbee, Von Keller, DJ Spence and other playmakers. Like great programs do, it’s not about rebuilding but reloading.
“We’ll be back,” Beasley said. “We got a good ’27 class coming back. We’ll be alright.”
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Choctaw football state title hopes end, but ‘we’re still climbing’
Reporting by Seth Stringer, Northwest Florida Daily News / Northwest Florida Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
