BAKER — In advertent whistle that led to what amounted to a football version of a mulligan might have been the difference in Friday night’s battle of Class 1A powers Blountstown and Baker.
The only problem is unlike a foursome of friends hitting the local golf course where mulligans among friends are acceptable, there are no mulligans in football, or at least there aren’t supposed to be. But in essence that turned out to be the case midway through the fourth quarter of Blountstown’s 28-14 win.
The Tigers were driving deep into Gator territory with about seven minutes left in the game when a Blountstown ball carrier fumbled the ball and the Gators recovered.
But that raised the age old question of when a fumble isn’t a fumble? The answer is when there is an inadvertent or in layman’s terms an official blowing a whistle before the play ended.
Amidst the controversy the officiating crew huddled to discuss the play as Gator Coach Matt Brunson pleaded his case. When the officials ended their brief conference they rolled the inadvertent whistle had nullified the play and the Gator fumble recovery.
The ball was marked back at the previous line of scrimmage, thus the mulligan, and three plays later Blountstown scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
Brunson didn’t comment on the call after the game as publicly criticizing the officials would be cause for the Florida High School Athletic Association to fine him.
He did point out that had the Gators been awarded the fumble they would have likely tied the game and might have even come out on top.
The mystery whistle wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t kosher as far as the officiating of the game Friday night.
On Baker’s second possession of the third quarter the officials failed to stop the clock on two consecutive plays that by rule call for the clock to stop. On the first play Gator quarterback Jon Beck threw an incomplete pass, which should have stopped the clock.
The next play Beck was forced to run out of bounds, another play that calls for the clock to be stopped, but it kept ticking. Add to that the mishandling of the clock at the game’s opening kickoff when it kept running after a kick out of bounds and the Gators might have lost three valuable minutes they could have used to tie or win the game.
The officials were hardly biased against Baker though as the Tigers were flagged for 15 penalties for 165 yards. But that is probably of no comfort to the Gators who lost at home for the first time since the playoffs in 2013.
BLOUNTSTOWN 28, BAKER 21
Blountstown 6 7 8 7—28
Baker 0 14 0 7—21
Scoring summary
First quarter
Blountstown – Cole Skipper 57 run (kick failed); 10:35
Second quarter
Baker – Nick Adams 10 fumble return (Josh Springle kick); 11:34
Blountstown – Chasen Roulhac 3 run (Derek Eberly kick); 3:26
Baker – Kalee Ciurleo 20 pass from Jon Beck (Springle kick); 0:42
Third quarter
Blountstown – Jamal Howard 75 interception return (Roulhac 2-point); 9:31
Fourth quarter
Blountstown – Roulhac1 run (Eberly kick); 6:07
Baker – Jamaal Day 15 pass from Beck (Springle kick); 3:23
Blountstown Baker
First downs 17 16
Rushes-yards 36-298 33-107
Passing yards 41 192
Comp-Att-Int 3-5-9 12-30-1
Fumbles-lost 3-3 1-1
Penalty-yards 15-165 9-85
Individual Stats
Rushing
Blountstown: Roulhac 12-82, Buggs 1-6, Skipper 5-71, Simmons 3-18, Johnson 11-83, Burke 3-30, Howard 1-8. Baker: Jalen Ciurleo 7-31, Austin Davis 8-20, Jon Beck 9-29, Montae Barto 7-27.
Passing
Blountstown: Roulhac 3-5-0 41. Baker: Jon Beck 12-30-1 192
Receiving
Blountstown: Burke 1-3, Godwin 1-26, Skipper 1-12. Baker: Jamaal Day 1-15, Jalen Ciurleo 4-55, Kalee Ciurleo 4-62, Austin Davis 1
Baker-Blountstown box
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'Mulligan' leads to Blountstown score