Argoes Drop Season Finale To West Georgia
November 13, 2016
The UWF football team saw its inaugural season come to an end with a 69-0 loss to 2-time defending Super Region 2 champion West Georgia before 6,088 fans at Blue Wahoos Stadium Saturday.
UWF (5-6, 3-5 Gulf South Conference) finished with five victories in 2016, tying the most by a first-year Division 2 program over the last 10 years. Florida Tech and New Haven each won five games in their first seasons.
The Argonauts completed the ultra-competitive GSC season tied for sixth place after being tabbed eighth in the preseason coaches poll.
UWF had three sellouts at Blue Wahoos Stadium and drew more than 31,000 fans to the downtown venue over five home dates. The 6,328 average attendance currently puts the program at 19th in the country. Each home game drew more than 6,000 with a football capacity of 6,288.
On Saturday, UWF finished with 138 yards of total offense. Graduate quarterback Kaleb Nobles surpassed the 3,000-yard mark with 72 yards on 11-of-23 passing. Freshman running back Chris Schwarz was the team’s leading rusher with 44 yards on nine carries.
UWG (7-4, 4-4) showed why it was the preseason pick to win the GSC, collecting 336 yards on the ground and 225 through the air. The Wolves scored 31 points off six Nobles interceptions and were 9-of-9 inside the red zone.
UWG scored on 11 of 14 possessions, including its first eight. The Wolves registered 21 points in the first quarter and 27 in the second for a 48-0 lead at the half.
UWF honored four seniors prior to the game and could return 20 starters and more than 70 other student-athletes when spring practice begins in March 2017.
End Of An Era: Escambia County’s Last Wooden Bridge Being Replaced
November 12, 2016
It’s the end of an era was as work is underway to replace the very last all-wooden bridge owned by Escambia County. The bridge has been deemed structurally deficient.
The bridge, over Pritchett Mill Creek on Bluff Springs Road, was constructed in 1956. Bluff Springs Road is closed until about March 2017 for the bridge replacement. There are no permanent residences located beyond the road closure, but Escambia River, camp access and the Escambia River Wildlife Area are cut off.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Bondi Named To Trump Transition Team
November 12, 2016
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, an early supporter of newly elected President Donald Trump, was named Friday to a position on Trump’s transition team. Bondi was one of 16 people appointed to the Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, according to a news release. Trump also made a series of other transition-related appointments, with incoming Vice President Mike Pence serving as chairman of the presidential transition team.
Tate Advances In 6A Playoffs With Win Over Gulf Breeze
November 12, 2016
The Tate Aggies beat Gulf Breeze 42-38 in the final seconds of the Region 1-6A Quarterfinals Friday night in Gulf Breeze.
“We have a special group. They (Gulf Breeze) are a heck of a football team. They didn’t quit either. We expected it to be a dog fight and it was,” Tate Head Coach Jay Lindsey said.
Tate took an early 7-0 lead that was quickly answered by Gulf Breeze to make it 7-7.
The Aggies came back on a quarterback keeper by Jake Henry to go up 14-7. Then, with the score now 14-14, the Aggies were headed back on top with a Sharmari Jones touchdown, 21-14. The Dolphins tied up 21-21 with a 76-yard touchdown run before taking a 28-21 lead.
Tate score again on a Henry to Corey Young touchdown pass and another quarterback keeper from Henry, 35-35.
Jones plunged in across the goal line with just 6.8 seconds on the clock for the game winning touchdown, 42-38.
“Kids don’t quit,” Lindsey said. “You’re down 14 third quarter, six minutes left keep playing football.
The Tate Aggies (9-2) will host the Navarre Raiders next Friday night in round two of the playoffs.
Look for additional photos later on NorthEscambia.com
Photo courtesy Jennifer Nagim for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
1A Playoffs: Northview Falls Short At Graceville
November 12, 2016
The Northview Chiefs were knocked out of the first round of the 1A playoffs on the road Friday night by the Graceville Tigers 43-14.
The Chiefs have not earned a playoff win since 2013.
Graceville took a 9-0 lead in the first with a safety and a touchdown. The Chiefs answered with a Luke Ward to Neikel Robinson 20-yard touchdown pass. With a good two point conversion, the Chiefs closed within one with 3:09 on the clock in the first quarter.
Ward found Robinson for another touchdown to take a 14-9 lead. But Graceville added three touchdowns for a 30-14 Tiger lead at the half. The Tigers went on to add additional touchdowns in the third and fourth — a total of 34 unanswered points for the win.
The Northview Chiefs ended their season at 6-5.
Pictured: Northview at Graceville. NorthEscambia.com photos by Gary Amerson, click to enlarge.
Friday Night Playoff Finals
November 12, 2016
Graceville 43, Northview 14
Tate 42, Gulf Breeze 38
West Florida 21, Wakulla 14
Navarre 40, Escambia 35
Baker 56, Cottondale 6
Escambia Academy 54, Clarke Prep 24
Century Health And Rehab Honors Local Veterans
November 12, 2016
A special program honored veterans was held Friday afternoon at the Century Health and Rehabilitation Center.
The program included the presentation of colors by the Northview High School NJROTC, special music of recognition of veterans. Center resident veterans George B. Bounds, Melvin Findley, Earl Hall and Johnny Tolbert were recognized.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Republicans Hold The Trump Card
November 12, 2016
The 2016 elections had already produced their share of surprises. The triumph of a reality-television star in the race for his party’s presidential nomination. The premature end of a certain Republican front-runner’s campaign that had raised well more than $100 million for the primary push. And the success of a septuagenarian Vermont socialist who nearly claimed the Democratic nomination for the White House.
That was before the Russian-backed leaks of campaign emails, the numerous allegations of sexual assault against one of the candidates and the most-watched debate in presidential history.
But Election 2016 presented one more shock to the system when the results came in: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee and leader in the polls, had lost the presidential race to Republican Donald Trump, a real-estate mogul turned celebrity.
Aside from Trump’s victory, though, there were few unexpected developments in Florida on Tuesday night. Months after failing to defeat Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio easily won re-election against Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy. Democrats made modest progress in the state’s U.S. House delegation and the Legislature, but picked up fewer seats than they had dreamed of when voters passed a ban on political gerrymandering six years earlier.
So, as the nation braced for the unpredictable changes that would sweep the federal government under Trump, Florida voters prepared for continued Republican dominance in Tallahassee. For one election, Florida was no weirder than the rest of the country.
HOME SWEET HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Trump and Clinton probably could have claimed homestead exemptions in Florida for 2016, given the amount of time they spent campaigning across the state.
Much of the time, Trump either represented himself or sent his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, in his stead. Clinton, meanwhile, complemented her own visits to Florida with appearances by surrogates like President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, her running mate. Oh, and that other “Clinton” with a first name of Bill.
Trump, Kaine, Biden and Bill Clinton would all make stops in Tallahassee — something unusual for a town that is normally sleepy during the state’s presidential campaign. Trump made forays into other parts of Northwest Florida as well, a step that seemed like a foolish waste of time, given that he was certain to handily win that region of the state.
Meanwhile, nearly everyone not connected to the Trump campaign believed that the increasing diversity of Florida, and especially the Puerto Rican influx that has reshaped the I-4 corridor, would make it difficult if not impossible for the developer to win his “second home.” And Trump, the thinking went, needed Florida far more than Hillary Clinton did.
Both of those notions turned out to be false on Tuesday. It’s not clear yet whether Trump will end up with enough electoral votes to avoid needing Florida at all — ballots are still being counted in some states — but Florida was one of Clinton’s best fallbacks if her Midwestern “blue wall” crumbled Tuesday. Instead, she lost Florida and several Midwestern states she expected to win.
In a twist, though, Clinton’s fate in Florida was sealed in part by the same white working-class voters that sunk her prospects in the Rust Belt. In heavily blue-collar Pasco County, Trump more than tripled the margin of victory of the last Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. He also drove up his margins in rural counties.
“White working-class areas, just like we saw in the rest of the nation, just rebelled against her,” said Matt Isbell, a Democratic analyst based in Tallahassee.
It brought to mind the victory of another Republican businessman written off by the establishment in a statewide race: Gov. Rick Scott, who led a Super PAC that supported Trump and can now enjoy the rewards that come with signing on to Make America Great Again.
“I was the outsider,” Scott wrote online after Trump’s victory. “The Republican Party didn’t support me, and they spent a lot of money against me, and I won anyways because Floridians wanted a change. The same was true for Americans this year.”
LITTLE MARCO COMES UP BIG
Had it not been for Trumpmania, Rubio might have been the one sweeping to victory in the Florida presidential race. Instead, having been vanquished by Trump after a resounding loss in the Florida primary, the man Trump referred to as “Little Marco” decided to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
It was a risky move. Rubio was going back on a promise that he would not return to the Senate after his presidential bid. And he was shoving a handful of Republican candidates, including close personal friend Carlos Lopez-Cantera, out of the race. But the thumping Rubio administered to Murphy made it look like the right call.
Unofficial returns showed Rubio beating Murphy by eight points, 52-44, despite the incumbent’s tortured relationship with Trump. And the outcome of the presidential race, ironically, makes it probable that Rubio will follow through and serve a full six-year term instead of running for the White House in 2020 — a prospect that Murphy had used of one of his main lines of attack. (Of course, if Rubio runs again in 2022, Democrats will also certainly paint it as a launching pad to a 2024 bid.)
In remarks that seemed jarring as the nation squabbled over Trump’s triumph, Rubio told supporters Tuesday night that it is time for America to come together to respect its diversity behind a common dream.
“I believe with all my heart that if we do what needs to be done in the years to come that my children and yours will be the freest and most prosperous that have ever lived,” Rubio said. “But we must start now. For while we still have time to get this right, we don’t have forever.”
Having called Trump a con man and questioned the size of the future president’s endowment during the primary campaign, Rubio will now have to work with the incoming POTUS in the Senate. And if he does still harbor national ambitions, Rubio will likely not want to cross Trump and his band of passionate supporters any more than necessary.
The loss knocks a good deal of the shine off Murphy, at one point seen as a rising star in a Democratic Party that needs them. Then again, former Gov. Charlie Crist claimed victory Tuesday in the race for a Pinellas County congressional seat, just six years after losing a Senate election to Rubio.
FAIRER DISTRICTS, SAME RESULT
For years, Florida Democrats had argued that if they could just stop Republican gerrymandering of congressional and legislative seats, they could make up some serious ground. Demographic patterns would make it hard for them to start dreaming of majorities, but a split state Senate and a more balanced U.S. House delegation seemed within reach.
Voters approved “Fair Districts” amendments to the state Constitution in 2010, and a court battle that followed the 2012 redistricting process led to new maps for the U.S. House and the state Senate. Running in a presidential year with the new maps and with Latino turnout juiced by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about immigration, Democrats thought 2016 might be their year.
Instead, they ended up picking up one seat apiece in Congress and the state Senate.
In the U.S. House, Crist’s win was joined by political novice Stephanie Murphy’s defeat of longtime Republican Rep. John Mica. Former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings picked up another redrawn seat, which, because it of heavy Democratic tilt under the new maps, was essentially decided in the primary.
Democrats did what they needed to do to pick up seats; it’s just that they lost some as well. Republican Neal Dunn took Congressional District 2 in Northwest Florida, something long expected, while Army Veteran Brian Mast beat Democrat Randy Perkins in Murphy’s old Treasure Coast district. Incumbent Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo held on in a South Florida district that Democrats had also eyed.
It was the same story in the state Senate: an active campaign, but modest gains. In the Democrats’ highest-profile victory, state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez managed to knock off Republican Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla in a Miami race. But next door, Democratic Sen. Dwight Bullard fell to Republican Rep. Frank Artiles.
Democrats easily picked up an Orlando-area seat held the past eight years by Senate President Andy Gardiner, a Republican leaving office after Tuesday’s elections due to term limits.
But the overall culprit, according to incoming Senate Minority Leader Oscar Braynon, was Trump.
“If I was able to net one, after Donald Trump won the state, then I think we were at least able to stop the tide,” said Braynon, D-Miami Gardens.
For his part, incoming Senate President Joe Negron sounded just as pleased, if not more so, to hold onto a 25-15 edge in the chamber.
“With everything that happened, with redistricting and all the other challenges for us, I was focused on five races and it looks like we won four of them, and in addition we’ll still have a delegation of three Republican senators from Miami,” said Negron, R-Stuart.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Donald Trump won Florida as Republicans had a good election night in the Sunshine State.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It turns out that the elites in Washington have no idea what is going on in this country. They are completely clueless. They are in complete shock right now. I love it.”—Gov. Rick Scott, on Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
by Brandon Larrabee, The New Service of Florida
FFA Smoked Meat, Citrus Sales Underway
November 12, 2016
The annual Northview High School FFA Alumni Smoked Turkey and Boston Butt Sale is now underway, just in time for Thanksgiving. And, the Northview FFA’s Fruit Sale is also underway with delivery before Christmas.
Turkeys And Boston Butts
In the annual fund raiser, you can choose either a seven to nine pound smoked Boston butt or a 10-12 pound smoked turkey for $30 each.
Boston butts will be available for pickup on Monday, November 21, and the the smoked turkeys will be available for pickup on Tuesday, November 22 at either Highland Baptist Church in Molino or the Northview Ag Department (complete pickup details are on the order form).
Proceeds from the sale will go to benefit the Northview High School FFA Scholarship Fund. The sale is sponsored by Archie’s Catering Smokehouse in Molino. For a printable order form, click here. Orders must be placed by Thursday, November 17.
Fruit Sale
The NHS FFA is selling citrus in attractive 2/5, 1/2 or 4/5 bushel boxes perfect for gift wrapping. The Florida citrus is from RiverBrite in Vero Beach.
Orders must be made by Monday, November 28. The pickup date is Wednesday, December 14.
For an order form click here. Order forms and payment can be returned to Northview by mail (the address is on the order form), or dropped off at the school office. Fruits available include red apples, pears, grapefruit, navel oranges, tangelos, and Hamlin oranges. Mixed trio half bushels are also available.
For more information, call (850) 327-6681, ext. 248.
Cantonment Woman Charged With Punching Deputy In Face
November 11, 2016
A Cantonment woman has been charged with sucker punching an Escambia County Sheriff’s deputy.
Marissa Nicole Farrell, 28, was booked into the Escambia County Jail on felony charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence.
A deputy was dispatched to Tate School Road and Highway 95A to a report of a suspicious person walking in and out of traffic. The deputy located Farrell who said she was looking for the cap to a hydration pack that had been lost by her boyfriend.
As Farrell walked away, the deputy ordered her to stop and asked for identification. She told the deputy that she did not have to speak with him and continued walking away. The deputy ran up to Farrell and told her that he needed to see her identification. Farrell then suddenly hit the deputy on his forehead with a closed fist, knocking off his glasses, according to arrest report. Farrell was then taken to the ground and placed under arrest.
While attempting to handcuff Farrell, she reportedly tried several times to bite and kick the deputy. The deputy suffered minor injuries to his forehead and forearm.
Farrell remains in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $5,000.