- Hawthorne won the FHSAA Rural state football title by defeating Blountstown 24-8 at The Range at H.G. Morse Stadium.
- Sophomore running back Derryek Gillins was the game MVP with 95 yards and a touchdown, surpassing 1,000 yards this season.
- Coach Cornelius Ingram secured his third state title in four years, praising his team's confidence on fourth down conversions.
- Hawthorne football won the FHSAA Rural state title by defeating unbeaten Blountstown 24-8 at The Range on The Villages Charter School campus.
The dynasty continues for the Hawthorne football program.
On Friday night at The Range at H.G. Morse Stadium on the campus of The Villages Charter School, the No. 2 seed Hornets defeated previously unbeaten and top-ranked Blountstown, 24-8, to win the FHSAA Rural state title.
It was the third state title in the last four years for Hawthorne football coach and alum Cornelius Ingram.
“I have the best job in the world,” Ingram said. “I tell people that all the time. I absolutely love what I do. Not too many people get to work at home, where you grew up, and I know these kids, of course. Our fan base was awesome tonight. I’m super proud of my guys and happy for our community and our school.”
The Hornets (11-1) did it the old-fashioned way, by running the football and playing defense.
Hawthorne held a Blountstown team, which was averaging 50 points per game, to just one score, and sophomore running back Derryek Gillins finished with 95 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries.
Gillins, who was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, went over 1,000 yards on the season and nearly had his fifth 100-yard game.
“It feels amazing, man,” Gillins said. “See how we’re reacting right now? Just great atmosphere, great fans, great community.”
In the opening quarter, the Tigers (12-1) began their second possession of the game at their own 45-yard line and drove down to the Hawthorne 12-yard line. However, on 4th-and-2, quarterback Jaylen Jones was stopped a yard shy on the final play of the first quarter.
The Hornets began their first scoring drive on their own 11-yard line and methodically moved the ball down the field, capping the 12-play, 89-yard drive with an 8-yard scoring run by Gillins.
One of the key plays was Blountstown jumping offsides on 4th-and-1 at the 13-yard line to keep the drive alive.
Sophomore Dakarai Wiggins ran in the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 5:33 to play in the half.
Hawthorne forced a turnover on downs on Blountstown’s next possession and began its next drive at its 36-yard line.
The Hornets faced a 4th-and-8 at the Blountstown 24-yard line when sophomore quarterback Richard Roundtree, Jr., lofted a pass to the left corner of the end zone and junior Nathan Jennings leaped and came down with it for the score with just 11 seconds to play in the half.
Wiggins added another conversion run for a 16-0 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, a Hawthorne fumble led to Blountstown’s only score.
The Tigers put together a 45-yard scoring drive and scored on a 1-yard touchdown run by Florida State signee Amari Thomas.
Thomas (10 carries, 26 yards), who was held to almost 125 yards below his average, ran in the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit in half, 16-8, with 11:55 remaining.
However, Blountstown was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct and junior Raheem Moore returned the short kick to the Tigers’ 45-yard line, where he was hit late out of bounds.
That moved the ball to the 30-yard line and four plays later, on 4th-and-7, Roundtree (13-of-22 for 126 yards and 2 TDs) completed a 27-yard touchdown pass to junior Dominick Harvey. Wiggins ran in another 2-point conversion with 10:11 to play for a 24-8 lead.
At one point, Hawthorne was 4-for-4 on fourth down conversions.
“When you have playmakers and you have a great sophomore quarterback, he’s always getting the ball in the right places to the right guys, and it’s been like that all year long,” Ingram said. “We were definitely confident going for it on fourth down and converting. That does something for your team, so when the defense goes back out, they feel like they can get any stop in the world, and that’s exactly what happened tonight.”
Jennings secured his seventh interception of the season with 3:44 to play and the Hawthorne defense had one final 4th-and-goal stop late to secure the win.
Penalties were also costly for Blountstown, which finished with 13 for 115 yards.
Hawthorne senior wide receiver Darian Bowie (6 catches, 42 yards) just missed a 1,000-yard season, finishing with 66 catches for 967 yards.
He was one of 12 seniors to end their career with a state title.
Meanwhile, the future is bright for Hawthorne, as most of its playmakers are underclassmen.
“I’ve been telling people all year, if there was a year to get us, I felt like it was this year because we were kind of rebuilding,” Ingram said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys in key positions, but these kids don’t care. They believe every single day… That’s just how we do it down here. Man, I absolutely love these kids. Great win for our program. Hats off to Blountstown. That’s a great program as well.”
High School Football
FHSAA Football playoffs (area teams in bold)
Friday, Dec. 5
Class Rural Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT) Championship
1 Fort White 32, 2 Port St. Joe 29
Class Rural State Championship
2 Hawthorne 24, 1 Blountstown 8
Class 6A state semifinals
4 West Broward (Pembroke Pines) 24, 1 Buchholz 17
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It’s great Hawthorne are state champions. Can you please see how many of the players are actually from Hawthorne and not from other towns. It’s a shame I know more than a few families who are no longer sending their Local children to school here because of all the problems at our school now its no longer safe. My family is in its 5th generation here but only one goes to the middle school but he won’t be next year. We have a city rec center that is closed our kids have to play city ball for other cities. Our kids should be considered to play ball before out of towers but they are not and instead of a community of generations of People who we all know each other we are littery letting gang members and thugs come to our school just for football. My dad, brother, son all played football for Hawthorne but the tradition and love we had for our school is no more. I will be surprised it it stays open in the next couple of years.. Something to think about when there is no longer a school to coach for.