ORLANDO – The Raines Vikings are back-to-back champions in Class 4A following a 27-13 victory over Cocoa at Camping World Stadium on Thursday night picking up their third championship in five attempts.

The Vikings also defeated the Tigers at this juncture last season 14-10 with both this year and last essentially being defensive stalemates once the two best teams in all of Class 4A took to the field against one another. 

The Vikings took advantage of three interceptions from Cocoa Quarterback Diego “DJ” Arroyo in the final quarter and flipped those into 13 points to pull away and secure the title.

When the game was on the line, the Vikings got the deliverance from their playmaker Brandon Marshall when he caught a swing pass for 74-yards and the go ahead score with 4:04 remaining in the game. Until that point, the Vikings had only accrued -1 yards for the entire second half.

 

BY THE NUMBERS:

First Downs: Cocoa-14, Raines-12

Yards Rushing: Cocoa-15, Raines-135

Yards Passing: Cocoa-264, Raines-127

Total Yards: Cocoa-279, Raines-262

Penalties: Cocoa (9-79), Raines (16-119)

Total Offensive Plays: Cocoa-63, Raines-54

Average Yards Per Play: Cocoa-4.4, Raines-4.9

Time of Possession: Cocoa-22:43, Raines 25:17

3rd Down Conversions: Cocoa 6-of-16, Raines 3-of-11

 

Cocoa’s DJ Arroyo came into the game with 3,193 yards passing on the season, good for 266 yards per game. Arroyo added 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Arroyo finished the night 17-of-39 for 264 yards and a touchdown. Raines QB Barron Coates entered the contest with a 76-percent completion percentage and 1,842 yards on the season. Coates finished the night 2-for-3 for 77 yards and a touchdown.

Cocoa’s three-headed monster in the backfield of Caziah Holmes, OJ Ross, and Willie Gaines combined for 2,243 yards. The Raines Defense held Cocoa’s rushing attack to 15 yards total. Holmes finished with 16 yards on 15 carries.

Raines entered the game averaging 248.8 yards per game in the rushing attack and finished with 135 on the ground. The Vikings were averaging 415 yards per game in-total, and finished with 262.

13 – Points off turnovers for Raines, as compared to 0 for Cocoa.