A little luck and a lot of defense carried Navarre High School to a 14-0 high school football win against Fort Walton Beach at Bennett C. Russell Stadium on Friday.

The Raiders (1-0) held visiting Fort Walton Beach (0-1) to fewer than 60 yards rushing and harassed Vikings quarterbacks Ryan Thompson and Steve Strano all night.

After playing a scoreless first half, the Raiders took the lead in the third quarter after recovering a Fort Walton Beach fumble at the Vikings' 31-yard line. On second-and-goal from the 12, Navarre quarterback Colton Kane threw a pass into the end zone that receiver Carron Murray bobbled and teammate Trey Chandler caught caught for a touchdown. Nolan LeMaitre added a 47-yard touchdown run with 2:15 left in the game.

The victory was just the second for Navarre in eight meetings between the teams. The Raiders beat Fort Walton Beach by the same score, 14-0, in 2006. They lost to the Vikings, perennial playoff contenders, 36-18 a year ago.

Navarre will host the Walton Braves at 7:30 p.m. this Friday. For more about the Raiders' win, see the Sept. 9 edition of Navarre Press.

Area scores of interest

 Friday

Walton 34, West Florida 11

Milton 34, Gulf Breeze 6

Crestview 49, Baker 20

Catholic 34, Choctawhatchee 16

Pensacola 24, Pine Forest 7

Escambia 27, Rutherford 14

Amite, La., 13, Pace 12

Thursday

Tate 30, Washington 20

Florida Atlantic blocked a UAB field goal attempt on the last play of Thursday's college football game in Birmingham to preserve a 32-31 Owls' win.

The Owls trailed 28-12 in the third quarter and didn't lead until Alfred Morris, a Pine Forest High School product, scored on a bruising 38-yard run with 2:20 left in the game. A two-point conversion attempt failed.

Blazers quarterback David Isabelle set up UAB's potential game-winning field goal attempt with a 50-yard run. Florida Atlantic linebacker Michael Lockley stormed in from the outside to block Josh Zahn's 28-yard try and preserve the Owls' win.

Jeff Van Camp, a red-shirt senior from Gulf Breeze who played for Navarre, completed 14 of 24 passes for 254 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. The pick was his first since Nov. 7 last year in a 56-29 loss to UAB in Van Camp's first start for the Owls. The Blazers racked up 622 total yards of offense in the rout.

"We've been looking forward to this game ever since last year," Van Camp told the Palm Beach Post after the game. "We saw it as a revenge game. We had our eyes set on it throughout the whole summer."

The Owls didn't exactly shut the Blazers down last night, allowing 424 total yards. Isabelle, a sophomore, ran 22 times for 214 yards and three scores and completed 9 of 19 passes for 79 yards with one touchdown and an interception.

Morris, a junior, finished with 103 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries and senior Lester Jean emerged as Van Camp's favorite receiver with nine catches for 164 yards and two scores. Nobody else caught more than one pass for the Owls, but Willie Floyd took his grab 43 yards for a third-quarter touchdown.

The Owls, members of the Sun Belt Conference, are scheduled to play Michigan State at 11 a.m. Sept. 11 at Ford Field in Detroit.

The Blazers will play Conference USA rival Southern Methodist University at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 in Dallas, Texas.

The Santa Rosa County Commission will present the tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7, at the Santa Rosa County Administrative Office Complex, 6495 Caroline St., Milton.

County Administrator Hunter Walker will present a proposed budget based on maintaining the property tax millage rate at 6.0953 mills. At that rate, the owner of a property with a taxable value of $100,000 would owe the county $609.53 in property tax. That doesn’t include taxes levied by the Santa Rosa County School District, municipalities, fire districts or other taxing authorities.

Residents will have an opportunity to comment on the budget after Walker’s presentation. Copies of the proposed budget will be advertised Sept. 17-19 and the final budget hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.

The county will submit a resolution adopting the approved millage rate to the county’s tax collector and property appraiser and the Florida Department of Revenue by Sept. 22.

Residents who cannot attend the meetings in Milton can watch the meetings live or review them about 18-24 hours after the meeting by going to www.santarosa.fl.gov/bocc/meetings0910.html.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Unlike the blast that led to the massive BP spill, the latest oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water.

The Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames Thursday was just 200 miles west of the spill site, but everything from the structures to the operations to the safety devices were different.

Yet when word of the latest mishap spread, residents along the coast could think only of the three-month spill that began after the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

"It's unbelievable," said Sophie Esch, 28, a Tulane graduate student from Berlin. "They should finally stop drilling in the Gulf. They should shut down all the drilling out there and not give permission to do any more. They've shown that it's just unsafe."

The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread, but hours later said crews were unable to find any spill.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehmann in New Orleans said Friday morning that an 87-foot Coast Guard cutter patrolling the area has not reported any signs of leaks. A helicopter was to survey the site later in the day.

Houston-based Mariner did not know what caused the fire. The 13 workers who were pulled from the water told rescuers that there was a blast on board, but Mariner's Patrick Cassidy said he considered what happened a fire, not an explosion.

Platforms are vastly different from oil rigs like BP's Deepwater Horizon. They are usually brought in after wells are already drilled and sealed and the oil is flowing at a predictable pressure. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews on board.

"A production platform is much more stable," said Andy Radford, an API expert on offshore oil drilling.

Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus, each spreads numerous pipelines and can tap into many wells at once.

The Deepwater Horizon was drilling a well a mile beneath the sea, which made trying to plug it after it blew out an incredible challenge, with BP trying techniques never tested. The platform that caught fire, meanwhile, was operating in 340 feet of water in a shallow area of the Gulf known as a major source of gas.

Responding to any oil spill in such a shallow spot would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles to access equipment on the sea floor.

Platforms do not have blowout preventers like deep water rigs that are supposed to shut down wells if there is problem. But they are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline.

Mariner Energy officials said there were seven active production wells on its platform, and they were shut down shortly before the fire broke out.

The platform was still intact and a small portion appeared burned, Cassidy said. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the company told him the fire began in 100 barrels of light oil condensate.

Photos showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery, an image similar to when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Crews decided to let that blaze burn itself out, and the rig sank into the Gulf two days after the blast.

On the Mariner Energy platform, the fire was out less than 12 hours.

A Homeland Security update obtained by The Associated Press said the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil.

The workers aboard the platform were found huddled together, holding hands and wearing life jackets.

A captain of the Crystal Clear, a 110-foot boat that rescued them, said his craft was 25 miles away when it received a distress call.

When Capt. Dan Shaw arrived at the scene, the workers had been in the water for two hours and were thirsty and tired.

"We gave them soda and water, anything they wanted to drink," Shaw said. "They were just glad to be on board with us."

Shaw said workers told him the blast was so sudden that they did not have time to get into lifeboats. They did not mention what might have caused it.

"They just said there was an explosion, there was a fire," Shaw said. "It happened very quick."

Crew members were flown to a hospital and released by early Thursday evening.

Environmental groups and some lawmakers said the newest problem showed the dangers of offshore drilling, and urged the Obama administration to extend a temporary ban on deepwater drilling to shallow water.

"How many accidents are needed and how much environmental and economic damage must we suffer before we act to contain and control the source of the danger: offshore drilling?" said Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat.

There are about 3,400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the country's petroleum industry