Ryan Davenport clenched his fist and threw punches in the air after every point his Navarre Raiders scored as they mounted a memorable comeback against Fort Walton Beach in a District 2-6A semifinal Tuesday night.

Players on the bench jumped up and down, cheering on their teammates, their smiles growing wider as Navarre inched closer to victory. On the court, the Raiders hit hard, executed passes, serves and sets and played the kind of defense it needed to play to win in a pressure-packed moment.

Needing a win to remain in the hunt for a playoff berth, Navarre responded to the challenge in front of it Friday night.

The Raiders built a big first-half lead, weathered a storm late and hung on for a 41-34 victory over Pace in a District 1-7A game that seemed destined to be easy at one point but turned into quite the battle between two county rivals.

Navarre alum Michael Carter took his talents overseas Sunday and made quite an impression.

Playing with the New York Jets in an NFL game in London, the rookie scored a touchdown for the second consecutive week and also continued his streak of leading the Jets in rushing.

Even with the game nearly over, the time on the clock inching toward the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Navarre clung to a sliver of hope on this mild October Homecoming night at Bennett C. Russell Stadium.

Chants of defense filled the Raider sideline, the players on that side of the ball coming up with another big second-half stop on fourth down to keep hope alive of an improbable comeback.