Arnold finishes 11-1

TALLAHASSEE - The Arnold Marlins were undefeated going into Friday night's Region 1-3A semifinal game against Tallahassee Godby. But by the end of the rainy night at Chiles High, not only had their winning streak ended, but their postseason hopes were crushed by a 48-6 Godby victory.

Godby senior quarterback A.J. Graham turned in another stellar performance, completing 17 of 29 passes for 343 yards and accounted for five of the seven Godby touchdowns.

The wet and muddy field didn't seem to bother the Cougars (10-2) as much as the Marlins (11-1).

"You can't control the weather, you can only control how
you react to it," said Godby coach Shelton Crews. "That's kind of been our motto here the last four weeks."

Scoring first was so important to Arnold coach James Hale, he called two timeouts within 30 seconds during the first drive of the game. After a failed fourth-down attempt, the Cougars took over on their own 43-yard line.

Graham's first play of the game was a 57-yard touchdown pass to William Davis. A 15-yard unsportsman-like conduct penalty set up Graham's two-point conversion pass to Chris St. Hilaire.

"I think that was a big turning point in the game," Hale said. "We still might've got beat, but I think we would have played a lot better if we had scored on that first drive."

What ensued was a first-half touchdown party. Cougars wide receiver Willie Downs made an appearance with a 46-yard reception, while St. Hilaire had two TD catches of his own for 52 yards. Throw in a 17-yard Lavorie Johnson TD run, and the Cougars rolled.

Down 35-0 at halftime, the Marlins' chances were grim.

"They asked us to have a running clock at halftime and I said ‘No, we're gonna play a whole game,'" Hale said. "You know, we worked hard all year. We get killed, we get killed. We want to at least play four quarters of football."

With 6:57 left in the fourth quarter, Arnold running back Chris Jackson caught a pass from Johnny Gray and bolted down the right sideline into the end zone for a 70-yard score.