Arnold rolls over Wakulla

PANAMA CITY BEACH - Wakulla pulled off a mild surprise early in its Region 1-3A game at Arnold on Friday. Soon after, there was nothing surprising about the outcome.

The ninth-ranked Marlins recovered from a trick play and scored 41 unanswered points en route to a 44-7 thrashing of the War Eagles at the Mike Gavlak Sports Complex. It was Arnold's second win over Wakulla in the postseason in as many years, and it set up a rematch with No. 10 Tallahassee Godby in next week's regional semifinal. Godby polished off Pensacola 40-0.

Wakulla's focus was to take away the outside lanes for Arnold running back Jeremy Hester. It worked, for a few plays at least. The junior eventually escaped and finished with a game-high 242 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries.

The Marlins (11-0) overcame the cold and walked away healthy, which was the goal.

"We played well and executed well," Arnold coach James Hale said. "We had to get this one over with and we did."

However, there was no looking past Wakulla, which finished 5-6 after squeaking into the playoffs by way of a tiebreaker. Hale said anything was possible, and he was pleased the Marlins remained on task on both offense and defense.

"All around it was nice," Hale said.

Wakulla hoped to pull off Arnold's magic of a year ago, when the Marlins marched into Crawfordville and left with a 13-8 upset. Wakulla's defense stiffened and held the Marlins to a 30-yard Jordan Masker field goal on the opening drive of the game.

On the War Eagles' first play from scrimmage, starting quarterback Zach Klees pitched to Casey Eddinger, who rolled right, threw deep and watched as Lee Smalls sped past Arnold defenders for a 73-yard catch and run to give the War Eagles a 7-3 advantage.

Wakulla amassed just 135 yards the rest of the way. Its final drives went punt, punt, interception, turnover on downs, punt, punt, turnover on downs and a lost fumble.
Arnold and Hester, meanwhile, began to roll. The junior tailback scored Arnold's next four touchdowns, his shortest from 6 yards and longest from 51.

Hester's breakaway yards gave way to Chris Jackson's bullish attack. The senior's first carry of the second half came late in the third quarter, when Arnold scored two more backbreaking TDs.

Jackson tallied the final points and matched Hester's 20 carries. Jackson rushed for 141 yards in what could be the final home game of his career.

Wakulla's Willie Thomas led his team with 73 yards, but only 15 came on his one carry in the second half. Klees and Eddinger both took snaps at quarterback and finished a combined 7 of 18 for 114 yards and one interception, by Blake DeBoard in the second quarter.

The chore of winning the first round is over for Arnold. Now the real work begins.

"Thanksgiving week is always tough," Hale said. "Hopefully our guys are mature enough to be focused.

"In the past, we haven't done well in preparing that week. We have to prepare well and get ready to play one of the best teams in the state."