Last year’s football success of our varsity football program at Saint Stephen’s left many wondering what this year’s team would be able to accomplish. Seeing the first district title brought home by the football team in school history, followed by an independent state football championship in Florida’s Sunshine State Athletic Conference, brought excitement to many in the Saint Stephen’s community as they waited for the start of this year’s season.

This year our Falcon football team started off hot with a 48-10 win over 6A Osceola High School (Seminole). This victory was their second straight win against a 6A school following a 17-14 victory over St. Petersburg Dixie Hollins in the spring game.

After the soaring victory over Osceola, they began preparing for a tough match with Windermere Prep the next week. Through two attempts to start the game through various weather delays, the game was canceled as neither team had availability in their schedule to play at another time.

This was a setback as the Falcons looked onward in the schedule to see IMG White, IMG Academy’s second varsity football team. This game held the attention of many high school football fans in the area as Saint Stephen’s was the first area football team to play IMG in a varsity football matchup.

This matchup was seen by many as a proving ground for both teams as IMG White was coming into their first game as a team and Saint Stephen’s was trying to feel out their standings in the area.

After the game kicked off that Friday night both teams were locked into a close battle with the score 0-0 after the first quarter. The Falcon’s began to gain steam as Chase Brown and Cam Vining both scored to lead the Falcon’s into halftime at 12-0.

This game, like Windermere, went through its fair share of weather delays. With the game rescheduled for 6:00 PM the following Saturday the Falcons scored on the first play of the half with a Demetrius Davis touchdown catch and run. This was the spark to begin a dominating half, ending in 32 points scored, and ultimately, a 44-0 victory

Following that win, the Falcons missed another game due to weather against Clearwater Calvary Christian. The following week the football team traveled to St. Petersburg Shorecrest Prep to play on Saturday.

After a rough start with the Falcons falling to Shorecrest 7-0 early in the first half, the Falcons roared back to win in commanding fashion, 42-10. Going into their bye week with three wins and a zero in the loss column, the next opponent on their schedule was a cross-town rival, Out-of-Door Academy.

Every year when the Falcons and the ODA Thunder faceoff, they compete to take home the headmaster’s cup. This game was another one with many eyes watching as the (3-0) Falcons took on the undefeated Thunder. Demetrius Davis started off strong and returned the opening kickoff to give Saint Stephen’s a 7-0 lead.

The Thunder’s first offensive play resulted in an interception that led to another Falcon touchdown. The following drive the Thunder scored their only points of the game to bring the score to 14-7. After that, the Falcons didn’t look back as they took a 61-7 lead into the half. Out-of-Door elected to play eight minute running-clock quarters to finish the game instead of the typical mercy rule running twelve minutes.

The next week Saint Stephen’s took on the Gateway Charter Griffins in their Homecoming game. Continuing their streak of dominating performances throughout the year, the Falcons jumped out to an early lead and kept rolling to take a 40-0 lead into halftime. During the second half of the game, the Falcons continued their dominance to finish off Gateway with a 53-6 victory.

Continuing their undefeated season, the Falcons went into their Senior Night game against another cross-town rival, Bradenton Christian. After the Falcon defense forced a Bradenton Christian three-and-out followed by a punt, a string of penalties by the Falcon defense brought Bradenton Christian into the red zone. BCS quickly scored to give themselves a 7-0 lead. After this, the Falcons came back to score 49 unanswered points to take a 49-7 lead into halftime. After the festivities and Senior Walk, the Falcons finished the game off with another commanding win 49-16.

The next opponent on the Falcons schedule was Seffner Christian, a larger 3A private school. This matchup gave the Falcons another chance this season to prove their might.

The Saint Stephen’s Falcons took off to a 28-0 lead in the first half before allowing a hail mary touchdown as time expired in the first half. In typical Falcon fashion, they continued to dominate in the second half to come away with another victory this season 48-6. With this victory, they continued to stay undefeated to finish off the regular season (8-0).

In the first round of the Sunshine State Athletic Conference playoffs, the number-one seed Saint Stephen’s Falcons hosted Spring Hill Bishop McLaughlin. After a victory against Bishop in the first round playoffs last year, the Falcons looked to continue their success on the path to another Sunshine State Athletic Conference Independent State Championship.

After another hot start for the Falcons, they took an early advantage of 28-0 after the first quarter at the MAC. Continuing to roll in the second quarter, they scored 14 points to take a 42-0 lead into the half. The Falcons finished the game off by scoring once more in the second half to win the match 49-0.

After suffering their only loss of their season, Out-of-Door Academy finished off their regular season without surrendering another loss. Carrying their momentum into the playoffs taking the second seed in our district, the Thunder won their first-round matchup against Santa Fe Catholic 42-6. This win took them into the second round matchup against Saint Stephen’s.

The Falcons took another early advantage this season by taking a commanding 35-0 lead into the halftime break. Continuing their dominating performance, the Falcons went on to win the game 42-0. This victory placed them in the semifinals to face Jupiter Christian.

Last Saturday at the MAC the Falcons played the Jupiter Christian Eagles in the semifinal matchup of the Sunshine State Athletic Conference playoffs. After a 14 point first quarter the Falcons continued to score taking a 21-0 lead into the half. With a win in this game taking the Falcons to their third consecutive Florida Bowl Championship game, the Falcons were motivated to finish the game strong.

The defense continued to dominate the Eagles as they held them scoreless again in the third quarter and forcing a safety helping lift the Falcons to a 37-0 lead going into the fourth quarter.

After a bad snap by Jupiter Christian’s center, the Falcons forced a quarterback fumble which Dylan Davis scooped up in the end zone for the final Falcon score of the night. Jupiter Christian scored with less than two minutes left on the clock to break the shutout and lead to a final score of 44-7

This season the Falcons have outscored their opponents by an average of 42 points per game.

Senior Quarterback, Fred Billy, said, “We start off strong every game and have finished teams off when we’ve had the chance. Our coaches put us in position to make the plays and our offense had the firepower to do it.”