Robinson, Newsome extend Hillsborough County’s flag football dominance

With plenty of style and moxie, Hillsborough County continues to dominate flag football in Florida.

The county’s prowess again was made perfectly clear Saturday at Jacksonville Mandarin High School where Robinson (Class A) and Newsome (Class 2A) won state titles.

It was the first state championship for Newsome and the sixth for Robinson, which has now claimed five state titles in a row.

Perhaps the most impressive fact is that the victories kept alive a Hillsborough County hold on the past four 2A and Class A state championships. Before Newsome, Alonso won the state’s 2A crown in 2019 and 2018, and Plant won in 2017.

Here’s an individual look at this year’s latest state champs:

No solving the Knights

Robinson coach Josh Saunders is a superior mathematician, which explains how he easily noticed a telling stat from this season: In 1,014 minutes played, the Knights trailed for a total of two minutes.

In the state’s semifinal and final, Robinson quickly jumped out to big leads and finished off its dominant run with a 27-8 victory over Miami Edison and a 33-7 win over Florida A&M, respectively.

By season’s end, Robinson finished 22-0 and outscored its opponents 876-65.

The Knights also handed multiple teams their only losses this season, including Newsome, Hillsborough High and Bradenton Southeast. Along the way, several Robinson players, including quarterback Sydney Stout and receiver Bella Dolce, became record setters.

Stout’s stats, in fact, appear difficult to break: 523 completions in 710 attempts (74 percent) for 5,880 yards an 111 touchdowns with only nine interceptions — state records for yards, touchdowns and completion percentage.

Saunders said Stout also is proud of the fact she caught one pass for 10 yards, thrown by next year’s slated starter, Brianna Stearns, in the championship game.

Dolce, meantime, caught 143 passes for 1,428 yards and 30 touchdowns — a team record (and believed to be a state record) for receptions.

“It was amazing to step up and play like that in my senior season,” said Dolce, who didn’t play varsity as a freshman or sophomore, then tore her ACL and sat out as a junior. “I just kept working at it and then I finally got my opportunity. It was so much fun.”

Dolce and Stout will continue playing for the University of Florida club team, also coached by Saunders.

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“Flag football is the best experience I’ve ever had and I feel like it could be the best experience any high schooler could ever have,” said Dolce, who has also played a little soccer. “I can’t wait to keep playing the game. I’m so excited for it.”

As a footnote of sorts, Saunders points out the following: The 1,014 minutes Robinson played were calculated by multiplying 48 minutes by 22 games, which equals 1,056 minutes. Robinson, however, mercy-ruled every team but one, which means they led by 19 or more points with two minutes remaining in 21 games, which means they didn’t play the last two minutes of 21 games.

Multiply 21 times two, which equals 42, and subtract that from 1,056, which gives you 1,014.

“It’s not fair to add in those two minutes of those 21 games because we didn’t play them,” Saunders said.

If you had a hard time keeping up with Saunders, well, join the rest of the state.

Battle-tested Wolves prevail

Newsome stepped into this year’s brightest spotlight and made the biggest plays in the biggest moments. None bigger than in the 2A state final against the nation’s No. 1 team, Davie Western.

That’s where the Wolves, led by dynamic junior quarterback and safety Devyn Silvestri, pulled out a 20-19 victory in the most dramatic fashion.

In the beginning of the final, Newsome took a 13-0 lead with two long drives, finished off with touchdown passes to Kayla Ludwig. Western, however, fought right back, scoring on the last play of the half to tie it at 13.

Western (17-1) then took the lead 19-13 in the third quarter, but failed to catch a pass in the end zone for the extra point.

That’s when Silvestri followed with her magic, completing a series of passes, mixing in a few nifty runs and driving the Wolves (22-1) the length of the field down to the Western 6-yard line with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

On fourth down at the 6, Silvestri received the snap, surveyed the field, noticed the defenders “were wide” and decided to make a run for it. At the last second, with defenders diving for her flag, she stretched the ball over the goal line.

“I thought maybe I only made it to like the half-yard line, but I looked over the ref raised his hands signaling it was a touchdown,” Silvestri said. “When I saw that I honestly have never felt more excitement in my whole life. Nothing has ever come close to that level of excitement.”

The euphoria continued when she ran in the extra point to take the lead, 20-19.

On Western’s ensuing drive, Silvestri struck again with an interception, a result sparked by the relentless pressure applied by Wolves rusher Caroline Mckenna and Silvestri reading the Western quarterback’s eyes.

From there, Newsome and Western traded possessions before Western finally was stopped on downs near midfield and Newsome ran out the clock.

It was an ending that was years in the making and was built this season on a tough schedule and several close victories, including 21-20 over Braden River in a district semifinal elimination game, and 20-19 over Bloomingdale in the region final.

“There is no doubt that winning those close games made us more prepared to win that state final,” Newsome coach Justin Shive said. “We always felt like we could do it.”

There was plenty of praise passed around from Silvestri, whose receivers in the championship game included Emmali Spieker (five catches, 36 yards), Ludwig (four catches, 49 yards, two touchdowns), Kassandra Pelaez (four catches, 17 yards), Kate Ugo (three catches, 16 yards) and freshman Emma Clough (two catches, 34 yards, including a key 27-yarder to set up the final score).