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.
Taylor Armstead missed some games this season because of an injury. When she finally returned to the field, it was a slow process to get back into her groove as a scoring threat for the Navarre Raiders.
She admits, it wasn’t easy, and yet, those moments of frustration faded away on a chilly evening at the Ashton Brosnaham Complex in Pensacola as the junior standout scored a crucial goal in a tightly contested District 1-6A championship game against rival Pace.
Nayeli Brambila had cut Navarre’s deficit to six points early in the fourth quarter Monday night and gave Navarre’s girls basketball a ray of hope that a comeback win over Central was possible.
But back-to-back 3-pointers from the Jaguars dashed that hope as the Raiders suffered another tough loss in what has been a difficult season.
The 3A regional weightlifting meet takes place this week and area teams will be well-represented there.
According to the unofficial list of qualifiers, Navarre has 18 in the Olympic division, led by district champion Izzy Zach. Zach is also a district champ in traditional, where the Raiders have a total of 19 lifters competing.
