Navarre’s boys basketball team came to an end last Tuesday night. The Raiders were overwhelmed early by Crestview and never got on track in an 84-57 District 1-6A quarterfinal loss to the Bulldogs.
Down 18-3 after one quarter and 45-15 at the half, it proved to be too big of a hole for the Raiders to dig out of as their up and down kind of season wrapped up.
Navarre’s girls basketball team could have folded up shop after the first half of its District 1-6A quarterfinal against Crestview last Monday night.
The Raiders trailed 19-9 at halftime but put together a furious second-half rally, nearly resulting in an upset win of the fourth-seeded Bulldogs.
Tyrell Marshall won’t be going too far from home to play college football, choosing to play for the University of West Florida.
Marshall originally committed to Division I Memphis, but when the Navarre defensive back standout chose to go another route, he knew D-II UWF had interest.
Northwest Florida will be well represented at the 3A FHSAA state weightlifting meet next Friday in Lakeland. The meet begins at 1 p.m. EST that day at the RP Funding Center.
Navarre has 13 competitors in the Olympic category, including regional champ Izzy Zach (183).
Darius Cunningham Jr. knocked down a 3-pointer with a little over a minute to play in Friday night’s showdown with Gulf Breeze.
The shot pulled Navarre within 10 of the rival Dolphins, and even as time became less and less on their side, the Raiders never stopped doing all they could to pull off a late-game comeback.
Navarre is headed to the Region 1-6A tournament and will play Nease in the opening round on Feb. 13 at Bennett C Russell Stadium.
The Raiders are the third seed for the tourney and are coming off their first district championship since 2022. That was also the last time Navarre was in the regional.
Near the end of Senior Bowl practice Thursday afternoon at South Alabama’s Hancock Whitney Stadium, the American team had a little fun, including Jordan Jefferson running a route and making a catch as he crossed into the end zone.
Maybe he has a future as a receiver in the NFL, but all kidding aside, defensive tackle is where Jefferson excels. He’s set up to become the latest Navarre alum to hear his name called in the NFL Draft in April.
Navarre’s girls weightlifting team talked after the District 1-3A meet last week about closing the gap on reigning state champion Pace.
The Raiders did just that at last Thursday’s Region 1-3A meet at Flagler Palm Coast.
Mateo Soto chimed in with a speech to his teammates at halftime of the District 1-6A final Wednesday night against Tate, demanding one thing of them no matter what the scoreboard said at the end.
The Navarre standout and team captain asked his fellow Raiders to be dead tired by the end of the night, to fight for every ball and not make anything easy for the Aggies.
