BRADENTON -- Fred Billy clutched a trophy as he stepped out of the Saint Stephen's locker room Wednesday and headed to the parking lot after practice at Moore Athletic Complex at Turner Fields. As a sophomore, the quarterback is already the most valuable player of the most successful team in Falcons history. He is the primary record-setter on a team which almost entirely rewrote the Falcons' record book.

For the highest-scoring offense in school history, Billy set school records for career touchdown passes and rushes during the season. On the Falcons' best scoring defense ever, senior defensive lineman Jake Westberry set the career record for sacks. Only during a meeting with Santa Fe Catholic in Lakeland did the Falcons fall short of both their average scoring offense (39.9) and defense (14.9).

Saturday in Oviedo, it will be a rematch on hand -- and for Saint Stephen's to win its first Sunshine State Athletic Conference championship, it will have to avenge its only poor performance of the season to beat the Hawks in the Florida Bowl.

"We've got to play better," Billy said. "That was one of our bad games. We have to clean up the mistakes."

The difference in both teams' resumes was the one meeting in Lakeland. Saint Stephen's (9-1) coughed up the ball three times and Santa Fe (10-0) earned a 14-point win.

During the regular season, Billy threw only two interceptions. Those both came against SFC. The quarterback also lost only one fumble during the season -- also against Santa Fe. The early-October meeting was the only time this season SSES lost the turnover battle and the three giveaways were the most in any game for Saint Stephen's this year.

"It's a bunch of stuff that ... won't happen this week," Westberry said.

With 25 passing touchdowns and 24 rushing scores, Billy is the Falcons' career leader in both. Against the Hawks, however, he started to press. Santa Fe returned the opening kickoff of the game for a touchdown and even though SSES answered

with a touchdown march of its own, Saint Stephen's was in a position of playing from behind from the opening whistle.

SFC never trailed this season and its first-play touchdown knocked the Falcons off-balance. The uncharacteristic mistakes were a product of SSES facing its toughest foe.

"We have to be realistic about what happened. We went up there and they beat us," head coach Tod Creneti said. "They forced us into turnovers, they forced us into mistakes."

When they meet again Saturday at Pennington Field at The Master's Academy, Saint Stephen's will bring a much more polished passing attack than the one it had in Lakeland. Billy has thrown for at least 100 yards in each of the last three games and set a career-high with 163 in a 35-0 semifinal win against Boca Raton Christian on Nov. 6. Wide receiver Bobby Harrison, the Falcons' only other senior, set a career-high with 96 receiving yards.

The blowout win was the pinnacle of SSES' success so far this season. Saint Stephen's scored its 35 points with a balance of running and passing, and recorded its second shutout of the season. In a conference final four, the Falcons beat up on the Blazers like they were an early-September opponent in SSES' Coral Bay division.

For the Falcons' season to be a total success, though, the Falcons need to climb the one hump they couldn't this season.

"We're doing everything we have to do," Billy said. "If we win the turnover battle we always have a shot to win."