Cocoa football will appeal controversial loss to St. Thomas Aquinas

Tigers seek to have the FHSAA reverse their loss based on what they believe to be the improper application clock management rules in the final minutes of play; video appears to support Cocoa’s case

According to a report in Florida Today, on Sunday, Cocoa high football coach Ryan Schneider confirmed that the school plans to appeal Friday’s controversial 37-36 loss at St. Thomas Aquinas with the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) on Monday.

At issue are several officiating decisions, in the closing minutes of the contest, which allowed Aquinas to regain possession of the football, move inside the Cocoa five yard line and kick a game-winning field goal when the timeout situation and game circumstances seemed to make such an outcome mathematically impossible.

Cocoa will contend in its appeal that the officials did not follow proper procedures with regard to the game clock, opening the door to the unlikely outcome.

Following Friday’s contest, SBLive Sports published the NFHS broadcast of the final 1:28 of the contest along with a detailed timeline of the controversial calls and plays.

Florida Today revealed that three clock stoppages will be at the center the appeal.

The first occurred with 2:16 remaining when the clock was not immediately restarted following an Aquinas first down near midfield. The clock is supposed to restart after first downs as soon as the chains are set. Instead the clock remained stopped approximately seven seconds after the chains were set, despite the vocal protests of the Cocoa bench.

Next, after Cocoa regained the football with a fourth down stop, with 1:28 to play, the Tigers went into victory formation, as quarterback Brady Hart took a snap and backpedaled. The clock was stopped after just one second, at 1:27, despite the fact that Hart had not yet been touched down. While Aquinas used its final time out, the Cocoa bench protested the quick stoppage and was whistled for a 15-yard penalty. Cocoa was also upset about the time out itself, as the scoreboard indicated the Raiders were out of timeouts.

When the ball was snapped again, Hart took a knee after taking several steps backward and was hit, while on the ground, by an Aquinas defensive player. The play led to some pushing and shoving between the two teams and a personal foul against the Raiders. By rule, the clock should have restarted as soon as the penalty was marked off and the ball set for play. It did not.

Had the clock ran, as Cocoa contends it should have, there would have been less than 40 seconds remaining by the time the Tigers took their third down snap, which would have allowed the remaining time to elapse. Instead only seven seconds went off the clock by that point and by the Tigers were forced punt the ball back to Aquinas with 30-seconds remaining, giving it just enough time to stage its game-winning field goal drive.

Cocoa is also protesting the fact that a penalty against Aquinas, for too many men on the field, was called and then waived off when the Tigers punted the ball to Aquinas. The video from the broadcast clearly shows there were 12 men on the field, assisting the Raiders with a long return to the Cocoa 40. Had the penalty call stood, the resulting yardage would have resulted in a Cocoa first down with 30 seconds remaining.

State associations rarely entertain such appeals, but since Cocoa is not challenging anything related to the judgement of the officials on specific plays, but rather their decisions related to rules and their lack of enforcement of proper clock procedures, this could be an interesting case to follow. The video evidence appears to support Cocoa’s claims.