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Harmony’s Rylan Rogers tries to gain yardage in the Longhorns’ spring game Thursday against East Ridge. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
While Poinciana (at Horizon) and Osceola (hosting DeLand and Edgewater) capping spring football games Thursday at 6 p.m., the county’s other programs got theirs in last week.
St. Cloud hosted Celebration and three other teams Thursday, with facing each other for one 25-minute running quarter.
“I thought we had a good spring and a solid jamboree. We are a senior heavy team this year and those guys know what’s expected,” Bulldogs coach Mike Short said. “We did get a lot of reps for some younger players and they made some big plays for us.”
Quarterback Logan King completed 12 of 26 passes for 267 yards and five touchdowns; four went to Alex Springs (six catches, 200 yards) on catches of 40, 20, 21 and 10 yards. Josiah Cotto, a standout on the St. Cloud basketball team, also caught a touchdown pass.
“He’s definitely a raw talent, but he’s tall, athletic and has a chance to be an explosive playmaker,” Short noted. “When we put him opposite of Alex, I think it could create some matchup problems for opponents.”
Cameron Dalton and freshman Michael Culver had 40-yard touchdown runs.
Celebration Coach Chris Blanton, who was not put in place until late February and went through his 19 practices with just three assistant coaches, got highlights from Phillipe Costa, who rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown; safety Xavier Davis, who intercepted passes on back-toback plays and Sean Nuzzi, who caught several balls including a 15-yard touchdown grab.
Veteran Landon Yaw and freshman James Wise-Pauly split time at quarterback.
“We knew we had a ton of work to do when we got here and we are nowhere near a finished product,” Blanton said. “The thing that is most encouraging is these players want to be here, they want to work and they want to succeed. It’s going to take time but we are all pulling in the same direction and are going to build this thing brick by brick.”
Tohopekaliga scrimmaged Hagerty Tuesday at Austin Tindall Park while a new playing surface is being installed at the high school. Wrapping up with second full year at the helm, Tigers coach Anthony Paradiso said things went well as he continues to build the Tigers program.
“We’ve made tremendous progress but there is still a lot of work to do,” Paradiso said at the conclusion of his third spring. “It took a while, but our players are now starting to get comfortable with how we do things, what is expected of them academically and athletically—particularly as it pertains to off-season work. We knew that was going to take some time but we have progressed to the point where can concentrate more on the game itself.”
Quarterback Sabby Meassick, who already has 6,900 yards and 78 passing touchdowns in two seasons, completed 15 of 29 for 164 yards, three touchdowns and one interception Tuesday. Against more physical teams with great pass rushes in his first two seasons, Meassick would sometimes throw the ball up for grabs. It is in that area that Paradiso continues to see vast improvement in the record setting quarterback.
“When the protection would break down, mistakes would happen, but it’s something you expect when you are playing a young quarterback,” Paradiso said. “Sabby continues to improve his pocket presence and he continues to grow and has added 15 pounds of muscle.”
Defensive tackle Andrew Hines (119 total tackles, 23 TFL) returns to anchor the Tigers’ defense.
Gateway wrapped up spring with a jamboree with Cocoa Beach and Colonial. Head Coach Marlin Roberts said about 40 players participated in spring drills and praised the spring play of rising juniors Jandel Diaz (QB) and Deshawn Reese (RB) and also said he was excited to see several freshmen expected to report in the fall.
“Man I’m beginning to feel old. The parents of some of these incoming freshmen were students when I first started coaching at Gateway.”
The Panthers, with Liberty and Poinciana, and will play as an independent this season.
“I hate not being in a district, but they were going to stick us with (state powers) Auburndale, Lake Wales and Jones again. Going independent will allow us to play a competitive schedule.” Harmony coach Nick Lippert said his spring camp also went well after Thursday’s spring game against East Ridge. “We avoided injuries and had a really spirited spring camp. We know we are going to have to play a lot of guys both ways, so we split the talent up evenly and switched them from offense to defense each day.” Lippert said the Longhorn defense was ahead of the offense because of the return of all-county players like defensive back Chase Adams, WR/DB Ivan Ramos, and linemen Mekhi Ealy and Clayton Williams. A true competition would continue into fall camp for the starting quarterback job.
“At the end of the day we are going to start our best 11 guys on offense and defense, and some of those guys are most likely going to be two-way players,” Lippert said.
At Liberty, Coach Dee Hart continues to rebuild the Chargers.
“We had 35 kids out for the spring which was about 15 more than last year,” Hart said. “We got a lot of work done as the players continue to embrace the new culture and work ethic we are establishing. As an independent, we were able to put together a schedule where we will be playing a lot more teams on our current level and that will help as we continue build the program.”
