Navarre, FL — NAVARRE — The heavy package is Niceville's calling card. Its X-factor. Its chance at a state title as the start of the Region 1-4S playoffs loom next week. That's not to say it's the sole reason behind the Eagles' success — a 9-1 record, a district championship and a likely No. 2 seed in regionals clearly have a lot to do with a defense allowing 12 points per game, a calm-and-collected playcaller in Harrison Orr and the maturation of DJ Shorts in the backfield. But when star linebacker Christian Caballero and tailback Micah Turner trot out on short yardage situations, a good offense becomes indefensible. A good offensive line becomes inpenetrable. A good team becomes great. Friday's 35-14 win over previously 8-1 Navarre validates that, the Eagles dismantling a District 1-4S crew so surgically on its home field that it begs the question: Can Niceville do this? Can Grant Thompson's crew blossom into a Region 1-4S champs and erase a state title drought that dates back to 1988? "Here's the thing: We're so young and we're such a weird team, but in the best way," said Thompson, who has a 3-0 record in the region quarterfinal round since taking over the Eagles helm in 2019. "I told the coaches about 10 times this week, we're still getting better. I've never had a team that's still getting better in Week 11. That's kind of weird. Like DJ Shorts, he just continues to get better." Three wins seperate the Eagles from greatness. Five from immortality. Let's examine the takeaways from Friday night. Will we see the heavy package expanded in the playoffs? Up 28-14 on Navarre midway through the fourth quarter, Niceville opted to go for it on fourth down. Three times. One was a 16-yard run. The other a 3-yard run. The last a 1-yard touchdown run to seal the 35-14 win. All by senior Christian Caballero, all successful. "I love the heavy package. I have a ton of faith in it," Caballero said. "Even though you get banged up a bit, I love it. It's just a team effort. I'm trusting my O-Line, my lead blockers BayBay, JP and Jack and I just put a lot of trust in them and follow them and do what I need to do." It was poetic really. Caballero was a Raider for three years, setting tackle records left in right during a junior campaign where he finished with 125 tackles and seven forced fumbles. He never carried the ball one time. "It's a big win for the team and for me personally," Caballero said. "I've been here, grew up with a lot of people so it's fun. I get bragging rights." Caballero ended the night with eight carries for 37 yards and two touchdowns. That's a 4.7 average carry, all while picking up four fourth downs and another two third downs when Navarre was specifically lined up to stop him. "Christian and the O-Line, they get after it," Thompson said. Turner added five carries in the heavy package for 30 of his 43 yards. So essentially, with the average carry topping 5 yards in the package, Niceville could line up and treat every set of downs as four-down territory and run heavy package until it's stopped. In Niceville's only loss against top-ranked Pine Forest, a 28-7 setback, Caballero didn't register a single carry in the heavy package. Don't expect to see that ever again. Is DJ Shorts really this good? Yes, yes he is. East-West. North-South. Shorts always seems to make the right read. And he's just as evasive as he is able to break tackles, as represented by last week's game-winning 45-yard touchdown run against Mosley where he shook off six tacklers. "He's an electric player," Caballero said. "It's just crazy that he's only a junior so he's going to get better and better. I just go crazy watching him, like he's really out here breaking all these tackles." The proof is in the stats. On Friday he rushed for 187 yards on 25 carries and three touchdowns — 21 yards, 45 yards and 19 yards, his fourth straight game with at least a touchdown and following up last week's 135 rushing yards and two scores against Mosley. "This is my third or fourth week at running back; I was more on the defensive side at the beginning of the season," he said. "So playing more offense now, the game is slowing down for me. I'm able to read the gaps, hit the holes harder. The whole game is slowing down for me." Even though he's taken the reins of the backfield, Shorts still loves seeing that heavy package flourish. "It's a lot of fun. You get downfield and they come out and punch it in every time," Shorts said. "Those are some hard runners." Niceville appears destined for 2 seed, Navarre a 4 seed The Eagles entered the night ranked third in Region 1-4S and trailing Buchholz by .835. But Buchholz lost 49-28 to Bolles, finishing its season at 7-2. Tacking on Niceville's quality win over an 8-2 district champ, Niceville appears destined for the No. 2 seed when the FHSAA reveals its brackets on Sunday at 10 a.m. A 2 seed would guarantee the Eagles home-field advantage through the first two rounds. The difference between traveling 4 hours to Gainesville for a Sweet 16 matchup with Buchholz versus hosting at Eagle Stadium? Well, you just can't oversell that. "Eagle Stadium was voted No. 1 in the state of Florida so we're electric," Caballero said. "It's just the perfect atmosphere and brings everything. When you make a big play and the crowd just erupts, you just don't get that feeling anywhere else." "It's a big ol' difference," echoed Shorts. "The atmosphere, 100%. There's nobody like Niceville." Navarre appears locked into a 4 seed after its District 1-4S title and with it hosting duties for the region quarterfinals