Last year, with a new coach, Tohopekaliga took it on the chin in a blowout loss to Lake Minneola.
This year, with a new coach, it was the Tigers that dealt the blowout.
And if Friday was any indication of what's to come, last year's 2-8 record is clearly in the past.
In Coach Anthony Paradiso's Toho debut, his wunderkind freshman quarterback Sabby Meassick threw for 202 yards and five touchdowns in a 49-0 win over Liberty, who was also debuting a new coach in Antony Smith.
Paradiso, who came over from nearby Lake Nona, said the Tigers still have plenty to work on, despite the score and Meassick's night leading the offense.
"We only practiced outside for like an hour because of lightning and crazy weather," said Paradiso, whose team lost its Kickoff Classic dress rehearsal last week against Oak Ridge to Mother Nature. "Sabby's got a lot to improve on moving forward. And a shutout is always good, but our goal is to keep getting better."
The started about as good as it could for Toho, and as bad as it could for the Chargers, who fumbled the opening kickoff. Julian Nasco recovered, and three plays later Meassick hit Nichalas Rawls on a swing pass, and the senior took it 19 yards for a score. Then after a fourth-down stop, the Tigers took three more plays to find the end zone again; junior Churandy Duvall took the handoff on a draw play and went 32 yards. Tohopekaliga led 21-0 11 minutes into the game when he found Rawls again from nine yards out and they never looked back.
It was 28-0 shortly before halftime when Nasco (6 catches, 103 yards) hauled in a 25-yard scoring strike, and 35-0 two minutes after the break when Dillan Harrell (5 catches, 38 yards) caught the first of his two TD passes. Keven Cherry rounded out the scoring with a 4-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, Rawls intercepted a pass to go with Nasco's fumble recovery; the Tigers defense held Liberty to 72 yards while piling up 265 of their own.
Tohopekaliga will look to continue the momentum when it hosts neighborhood rival Gateway, who beat Lake Buena Vista, 27-20 , on Friday. Liberty looks to regroup with a Thursday home game against Eau Gallie.
