OVIEDO — A tough loss, to be sure, but the CFCA Eagles had nothing to hang their heads about; and they didn’t.

The Eagles fell Nov. 15 in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference’s Third Place Game, part of the 2014 Florida Bowl at The Master’s Academy. 

CFCA gave up a late score to Seffner Christian that enabled the Crusaders to escape with a 31-30 victory and third place in the league.

Down starting quarterback Gehrig Chambless and without a placekicker — a predicament that loomed large in a game decided by one point — CFCA battled back after trailing 14-6 early and led late in the contest.

The duo of Bradley Dos Santos and Jacob Brenyo helped key the team’s usual, physical attack on both sides of the ball.

The official result was a loss, but it’s hard to look at the game — or the Eagles’ season, as a whole — and see anything but a huge win. 

A year ago, CFCA finished 4-6 and was a non-factor in the SSAC. In head coach Michael Bonneville’s first season at the helm, the Eagles doubled their win total and were one of the conference’s elite programs.

No team or athlete should be content with just making it there, but there is a lot to be said for CFCA being one of the eight SSAC programs that made the playoffs and competed on Saturday — and for finishing fourth in a growing league of 24 teams.

“It’s big — being the first year here as the head coach and being able to turn it around this fast,” Bonneville said.  “Everybody bought in.”

Bonneville and his staff turned around the program and did so with essentially most of the players from the 2013 team — an achievement worthy of acknowledgement in a transfer-happy high-school football landscape.

“We haven’t had transfers or anything new,” Bonneville said. “(We have) young kids. We told them they’ve got to play with heart and their minds. (Use) what God has given them, blessed them with their talent, and let’s make the best of it.”

For the program’s seniors — including Robert Crawford, Ralph Balderamos, and Brenyo and Austin Clark — they can take pride in knowing their final year of high school football was the best season in program history.

Of course, the fun part for Bonneville and his staff is that so many players will be back. The Eagles were young, particularly with regards to skill position players. Chambless, a bullying dual-threat quarterback, is just a freshman, and Dos Santos is a sophomore.

With the likes of those two, it’s not a stretch to say that the foundation that Bonneville and his program have laid this fall will continue to be built upon and that the rest of the SSAC officially has been put on notice.