For both Flowers (7-1) and Suitland (7-2), scoring came at a premium Friday Night.
With about six minutes remaining in the game, Suitland made an aggressive choice after finding the end zone for the only time all night: a two-point conversion.
Flowers senior linebacker Tyger Williams made a game-saving play on his senior night. He stuffed Suitland running back Anthony Coad before the goal line to preserve a 7-6 victory.
While the two-point conversion stop was the difference in the Jaguars' win, the Rams had one final chance with under a minute remaining. On fourth down, Suitland quarterback Anthony Boyd threw up a pass under pressure toward an open receiver. However, Dominic Johnson overran the ball, and it fell incomplete.
Flowers' defense contained the Rams all night but also came in clutch in the biggest situations.
"Our defense has come a long way," Flowers head coach Frederick Groves said. "We had problems at the beginning, but it seemed like these kids are getting it, man."
According to Groves, Flowers' defense struggled at first this season under a new coaching staff. But those struggles weren't notable Friday night. The Jaguars held Suitland scoreless for the first three-and-a-half quarters and made the necessary stops.
"We've been playing lights out for the last few weeks on defense, man, and we're continuing to peak and trend up," Groves said. "I'm happy for them, I'm happy for the success and happy for the hard work that really showed off today."
The majority of Friday's game was a chess match; both teams were scoreless in the first half and each found the end zone one time.
But both teams found their only breaks off opposing penalties.
For Flowers, its touchdown came after the drive was extended from a roughing the punter penalty on fourth down. And after having one touchdown negated, Cavare Durandisse scampered into the end zone for a 16-yard run. The Jaguars' extra point proved to be crucial.
Flowers' offense revolved around its run game. Durandisse had over 50 yards on the ground and Garrett Williams III ran for over 60. The Jaguars rushed for over 140 yards, and it had a major impact despite a struggling pass game. Quarterback Damieon Butler was 5-of-11 for 33 yards Friday night.
"We got to continue to cut down on mistakes," Groves said. "We got a lot of mistakes offensively. We got a lot of guys that can run that ball. We got three or four backs out there that can take over the game at any point in time."
Despite the run game success, the offense only found the end zone once and were set back by a plethora of penalties.
"As long as we just cut down on mistakes, man, I think we want to continue to…give a lot of defenses nightmares when they come play," Groves said.
But Suitland had similar issues -- an inability to find the end zone.
On the Rams' touchdown drive, its pass game made a major play to set up the score as Body found receiver Javon Arrington for a pass play over 35 yards -- the biggest play of the game. Then, a roughing the passer penalty on a third-down stop allowed Elijah Miller to find the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown run.
Miller ran for 39 of the Rams' over 70 rushing yards. Their pass game was also solid, despite limited attempts, passing for 67 total yards on four completions.
There were an abundance of mistakes on both sides. With Friday being both of their regular-season finales, those mistakes will need to be corrected moving forward.
"We made a lot of mistakes on this field. It was us versus us," Groves said. "[If] we would have cleaned up this game a little bit better, it would have been a better outcome for us. But our guys were able to find a way and persevere."
For Flowers, the win meant more, especially because it was senior day.
"It means a lot more for our seniors at Senior Night, homecoming. It means a lot, man. Our team went through a lot of adversity the last few years," Groves said. "To see them get this win and have success on Senior Night from the fans, family and the Springdale community, it meant a lot to us."
