SANTA ROSA BEACH — Sooner or later, all good things must come to an end.
Baker School’s football team put its 20-game regular season winning streak on the line against South Walton on Friday.
Hampered by three turnovers, the Gators fell to the Seahawks 28-21 to drop their first regular season game since 2012.
Baker-South Walton football photos>>>
“Like I thought coming over here, it was a great high school football game,” Gator Coach Matt Brunson said. “Coach (Phil) Tisa does a great job, not only on offense but on defense too. They took away some things and we were in sort of a chess match.
“They did hit a couple of plays. And we turned it over three more times than we would have liked to have. But when you get in a game like this, turnovers are the difference.”
South Walton (9-1) won the opening toss and took the football, but stingy Gator defense forced a three-and-out and a Seahawk punt.
The Gators (9-1) set up shop on their first possession on their own 34-yard line and proceeded to go the length of the field for the game’s first score.
Austin Davis, who led Baker in rushing with 123 yards, had 38 yards on the first drive. However it was quarterback Jon Beck who scored from 14 yards out with 5:43 left in the first quarter. Josh Springle added the extra point to put the Gators in front 7-0.
South Walton responded to the Baker scoring drive with a long scoring drive of its own.
The Seahawks move the ball 76 yards for their first score of the night with Johnathan Ortner hitting Alex Smith with a 14-yard touchdown pass with 3:25 left in the first quarter.
Baker’s second possession of the game was cut short when a Beck pass was intercepted by Austin Garofalo, who would prove to have a knack of being in the right place at the right time throughout the game.
South Walton was unable to capitalize on the Baker miscue and the first quarter ended with the teams tied 7-7.
Baker’s second touchdown drive on of the game covered 80 yards and took six minutes off the clock. As was the case throughout the game, the Gators stayed on the ground with Davis, Beck and Montae Barto.
Facing a third-and-1 at the South Walton 3-yard line Beck hit tight end Jonathan Gatewood with a touchdown pass with 6:26 left in the half.
The teams traded possession before South Walton matched the Gator score with a 15-yard scoring pass from Ortner to Joe Ledo-Massey.
Baker took the opening kick of the second half and went 73 yards on nine plays with Davis scoring on a 17-yard run.
The Gators led 21-14 at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Seahawks were driving.
South Walton caught Baker in a pass blitz and handed the ball to Donnie Grosskopf, who went 28 yards to tie the game at 21-21.
The next two Gator drives ended in fumbles with Garofalo recovering both of them for South Walton.
On fourth-and-less than a yard Barto was fighting for the first down when the ball came out. Garofalo recovered the fumble at the Baker 43.
Six plays later Ledo-Massey scored the game-winner on a 13-yard run with 5:56 left in the game.
The Gators were driving for the tying score when Beck fumbled inside the Seahawk 40. Garofalo recovered and South Walton held on to win.
The game was every bit as close as the final score indicated.
Baker outgained South Walton 344 yard to 308.
The Gators picked up 287 yards on the ground on 57 carries while throwing for another 57.
The Seahawks had a balanced attack with 157 yards rushing and 151 yards passing. Ledo-Massey led the South Walton rushing attack with 52 yards on 10 carries.
Ortner was 13-of-19 passing.
Both teams will now get ready to host in the opening round of the playoffs Friday.
Graceville will be at Baker.
“That’s a good football team and that was a great high school game,” Brunson said. “I’m proud of our guys battling to the end. And now we will get ready for the playoffs.
“These next several games we are going to be involved in are going to come down to the wire. We have to stay in them and make plays. We’ve just got to get refocused and ready to go.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gator turnovers prove costly as streak ends (PHOTOS, VIDEO)