JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Raines football team served notice once again that it isn\u2019t going anywhere. <\/p>\n
The Vikings used a relentless defensive and special teams performance to choke out the high-powered offense of Mandarin in a 31-13 statement game at the Graveyard in front of a sell-out crowd on Friday night. Raines (5-0), ranked No. 1 in the Super 10 and Coaches poll, stretched its winning streak against Gateway Conference schools to a whopping 23 games.<\/p>\n
And that is why the Vikings and the program\u2019s rallying cry, Ichiban, is a Duval County tradition. Raines is 32-1 since the start of the 2024 season. That loss came in the 2024 state championship game to Miami Northwestern, a defeat it avenged last year. <\/p>\n
Not since a 21-12 loss to Jackson on Oct. 27, 2022, has a Duval County public school team come out on top of the Vikings. Mandarin (3-1) brought a 20-game winning streak against DCPS programs into the Graveyard but had little luck against the ferocious front of the Vikings. <\/p>\n
Troy Butler and Chenaniah Doran wrecked Mandarin\u2019s offensive line and kept Miami commit Knox Annis uncomfortable all game. Even when Raines wasn\u2019t mashing Mandarin in the trenches, special teams were doing the job. The Vikings pinned the Mustangs back inside their 20 on back-to-back drives in the opening half and forced them to punt from their own end zone. <\/p>\n
That excellent starting field position left Raines with short fields, and it took advantage. TJ Williamson tied things at 7-all midway through the second quarter, and Samon Ellison-Morgan barreled in after that, courtesy of more excellent starting field position, to put the Vikings up 14-7 at half. Mandarin managed to turn one fumble into points on an Emmanuel Cole touchdown run to get within 17-13 in the third. But with Mandarin feeling a tinge of momentum, the Vikings slammed the door shut. <\/p>\n
Ellison-Morgan rifled a pass over the middle that was deflected and right into the hands of Marquez Hicks. Hicks not only picked up the first down but took it into the end zone for the decisive score and 24-13 lead. Ellison-Morgan added a second rushing touchdown for the exclamation point. <\/p>\n
Raines shut down Mandarin\u2019s vaunted passing attack of Annis and Brysen Wright most of the game. Wright had a touchdown pass on the opening drive for a 7-0 Mandarin lead, but catches were tough to come by after that. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Raines football team served notice once again that it isn\u2019t going anywhere. The Vikings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,330796,451,26584,3,171849,452,453,171848],"class_list":["post-853025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-football-friday","tag-headlines","tag-high-school","tag-news","tag-sports4jax","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-varsity-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}