Remove link/Post title from feature slider

Happy New Year! Thanks for designing a great theme. I also appreciate the great feedback and support you’ve given everyone.

You’ve addressed this issue before, but I’m having some problems getting the fix to work correctly.

I’m trying to remove the box on the feature slider that contains the text of the post title and associated link. I’m running a child theme and have added your code from the link provided above. I’ve also opened and closed a post and hit update, as this seems to have fixed similar issues before, but to no avail. I’m still getting the box.

The site is: https://teague.brian.andreychek.com/

Here’s the contents of my current functions.php file:

<?php
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );
function theme_enqueue_styles() {
    wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
    wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_uri(), array( 'parent-style' ) );
}

if ( ! function_exists( 'sparkling_featured_slider' ) ) :
/**
 * Featured image slider, displayed on front page for static page and blog
 */
function sparkling_featured_slider() {
  if ( is_front_page() && of_get_option( 'sparkling_slider_checkbox' ) == 1 ) {
    echo '<div class="flexslider">';
      echo '<ul class="slides">';
        $count = of_get_option( 'sparkling_slide_number' );
        $slidecat =of_get_option( 'sparkling_slide_categories' );
        $query = new WP_Query( array( 'cat' =>$slidecat,'posts_per_page' =>$count ) );
        if ($query->have_posts()) :
          while ($query->have_posts()) : $query->the_post();
          echo '<li>';
            if ( (function_exists( 'has_post_thumbnail' )) && ( has_post_thumbnail() ) ) :
              echo get_the_post_thumbnail();
            endif;
              echo '<div class="flex-caption">';
                  if ( get_the_title() != '' ) echo '<h2 class="entry-title">'. get_the_title().'</h2>';
                  if ( get_the_excerpt() != '' ) echo '<div class="excerpt">' . get_the_excerpt() .'</div>';
              echo '</div>';
              endwhile;
            endif;
          echo '</li>';
      echo '</ul>';
    echo ' </div>';
  }
}
endif;

?>