Santa Fe Football Sees Dunnellon Rally for District Title

ALACHUA — Dunnellon scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter Thursday to rally for the 3A-District 5 title with a 22-17 win against Santa Fe.

Dunnellon (7-0, 3-0 district) opened the scoring on running back Tony Tanner’s 12-yard touchdown burst. 

Santa Fe (6-2, 2-1) approached the goal line a minute later trying to even the score when quarterback Gavin Peterson ran for 71 yards to the Dunnellon 8-yard line.

However, the Dunnellon defense held strong to only allow the Raiders to score a field goal with less than four minutes remaining in the first quarter. 

It became a back-and-forth contest between the teams from there. 

Early in the second quarter, Dunnellon increased the lead by scoring on a 32-yard field goal by Jhordy Valle Linares. 

Santa Fe tied the score at 10-all at the 8:13 p.m. mark of the second quarter following a 60-yard pass play from Peterson to wide receiver Kayoni Briggs to the Dunnellon 20. Running back Jasiah Powell scored from the 3 several runs later.

The Raiders took their first lead at 17-10 with 30 seconds left in the third quarter when Powell scored from the 17.

Dunnellon went on to score two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to decide the outcome. 

Tanner scored his second rushing touchdown (31 yards) with 10 minutes remaining in the game, but the point-after attempt was blocked by Santa Fe’s Jayvin Williams to leave the Raiders hanging to a 17-16 lead.

Four minutes later, Elias Williams scored on a 79-yard pass play to put Dunnellon ahead 22-17 when the try for two failed.

Santa Fe tried to fight back in the final minutes, but the Dunnellon defense closed out the game. 

Raiders coach Earnest Graham attributes part of the poor play to the flu, which impacted both players and coaches. 

“We were definitely lethargic,” Graham said. “I wanted to commend our guys for at least responding to their adversity, my adverse week.”

The game was a Pink Out for the Santa Fe student section to show support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Santa Fe players wore pink sweat bands and the cheerleaders wore pink bows in addition to their pink pom-poms. 

Santa Fe hosts Belleview next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. game.

Category: Football, High School Sports, Santa Fe High School