The Clifton Park Giants and the Ocala-based Marion County Juice Buccaneers met Sunday morning in the semifinal round of the 2026 NFL Flag Championships 14U boys division, with a spot in the national title game on the line.
The game, which kicked off at 10 a.m. ET and aired on ESPN, is part of the NFL Flag Championships presented by Toyota, held this year at the Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana. According to NFL.com, more than 350 boys’ and girls’ teams from across the country and around the world competed across 13 age divisions over the four-day event, with regional champions representing all 32 NFL clubs.
A midgame look at the matchup showed the game tightly contested. In a clip posted by the league’s official X account, the scoreboard read 12-7 in favor of Clifton Park with 9:32 left in the second half, third-and-goal, shortly after Ocala’s offense punched in a passing touchdown. NFL posted on X: “The Bucs reclaim the lead after this passing TD”
The Bucs reclaim the lead after this passing TD
2026 @NFLFLAG Championships on ESPN/NFLNhttps://t.co/u9u8C2TJ7A to find a league near you pic.twitter.com/NO7bqCMw7V
— NFL (@NFL) July 26, 2026
The caption and the on-screen score did not fully align in that clip, so the exact possession-by-possession sequence around that score remains unclear pending full game footage.
Two Programs, Two Different Roads to Sunday
Clifton Park arrived at the semifinal for the second straight year. Operating under the name “Clifton Park Giants” after qualifying through a regional tournament hosted by the New York Giants, the Capital Region travel squad opened the weekend with a 21-14 win over a Carolina Panthers regional representative, then followed it with a 33-20 win over a Seattle Seahawks-affiliated team from San Diego in the quarterfinals, according to News10.
Rising Christian Brothers Academy sophomore Brady Von Schiller threw five touchdown passes in that quarterfinal win, per News10, with every score caught by a CBA classmate. Half of Clifton Park’s eight-player roster comes from the school.
This is familiar, painful territory for the group. A year ago, Clifton Park’s tournament run — then playing under the “Clifton Park Bills” name in Canton, Ohio — ended in the semifinals with a 41-12 loss to the eventual champions from Jacksonville, according to News10. Team member Jacob Turner told the outlet that memory is fueling this year’s group: “I feel like losing it in the semifinals last year is gonna make us want it more this year, and get the job finished.”
Head coach Jeffery Jones didn’t hide his team’s confidence heading into the weekend, either. “This is gonna sound horribly arrogant: they can’t stop us,” Jones said, according to News10. He credited quarterback Von Schiller’s ability to spread the ball around as the reason opposing defenses can’t key on one or two receivers.
Ocala’s Marion County Juice Buccaneers made their own case for a title shot, and defense played a role in it. In video posted by Gainesville’s WCJB, defensive back Makel Snowden read a pass and returned it for a pick-six to help send the Bucs to the semifinal round. That takeaway-heavy identity showed up earlier in the tournament, too — highlights distributed by NFL.com from an earlier matchup between the two programs’ regional affiliates show Marion County’s defense scoring on both an interception return and a pick-six in a game that came down to the final seconds.
What’s Still Unconfirmed
As of this writing, no outlet has published a final score for Sunday’s semifinal, and this article will not state one. The Ocala-Clifton Park semifinal was one of six semifinal games scheduled for Sunday at the tournament, according to ESPN, with the age-division championship games to follow on ABC later Sunday afternoon.
Whichever team wins advances directly into the 14U boys championship game.
