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Hernando Today

Historic Night

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Springstead senior fullback Mike Greco, who finished with 12 carries for 54 yards and one touchdown, looks for a way around Hernando High defender Sam Adams (25) Thursday night at Booster Stadium in Spring Hill. The Eagles collected their fourth straight win, 21-0.

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By TONY CASTRO SPORTS EDITOR

Hernando Today

Published: October 17, 2008

SPRING HILL - It was a night of firsts Thursday at Booster Stadium.
While many of fans in attendance were keeping one ear on their radios and I-Pods as the Tampa Bay Rays was attempting to clinch its first-ever pennant at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, Springstead fans also witnessed a rare feat.
For the first time in 31 meetings – or since the Jimmy Carter administration in 1978 – the host Eagles posted its initial shutout of archrival Hernando, 21-0.
With the win, Springstead collected its fourth straight victory to climb to 5-1 overall. The whitewash was the Spring Hill crew's fourth in the past five home games dating back to the final tilt in 2007.
The triumph also served as Springstead's sixth in a row over the Purple and Gold, who have dropped four straight this season.
The shutout was Hernando's first in 36 games or since Aug. 26, 2005's 33-0 loss at Central.

Coaches' chatter

Despite the final score, Hernando's first-year Head Coach John Palmer was not distraught.
"The effort was there," emphasized Palmer. "We played hard. At times we were able to establish some things. But we had too many penalties (game-high seven for 64 yards). You can't have those against good teams.
"We knew coming in we had to play a perfect game," lamented Palmer. "Defensively, we played hard. On special teams, our kicking game was fine, but offensively, we weren't able to establish any rythm. That was mostly because of missed assignments or penalties."
From the home sideline, SHS's 11th-year skipper Bill Vonada improved to 7-4 lifetime against the Leopards and passed Hernando's Mike Imhoff for the second most amount of career wins at one Hernando County school (53).
"The opening drive set the tone," stressed Vonada, on his team's opening possession for a score. "We were able to run some clock and force their defense to play tighter to the line. Once we get a lead, we have confidence that our defense can make it stand."
Overall?
"Sure, there's still some things we need to tweak and clean up," Vonada replied. "We have not arrived yet. We didn't play our best game tonight, and we still won. Give credit to Hernando, their kids executed well to stay in the game."

Eagle leaders

SHS senior quarterback James Mahla, who came in as the county's leading passer (48-of-79, 697 yards, 7 touchdowns, zero interceptions), clicked on a game-high 13-of-21 aerials for 133 yards and one touchdown against zero picks.
Mahla's 12-yard, second-quarter touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Domnique Roberson complimented fullback Mike Greco's first-quarter 6-yard scoring run.
"Defensively, we came out kinda low intensity-wise," added the 17-year-old Roberson. "It seemed like we kinda picked it up at the end to get the shutout. Our goal is to not allow anyone to score."
What was the key?
"The opening drive did it all," answered Roberson.
And what about Mahla's touchdown pass?
"It was beautiful," smiled Roberson. "It hit me right on the money."
"The opening drive was huge," recalled the 17-year-old Mahla. "We wanted to put them in the hole early and we did. Still, we were not as intense as we have been. We have to improve there."
Mahla's 11-yard scoring scamper closed the books with 3:56 left in the game.
In between, senior place kicker Nate Schafer converted 3-of-3 point-after boots.

Carbon copies

All three Springstead touchdowns arrived after lengthy, time consuming drives.
None was more impressive than the season-high 17-play, 80-yard drive that gobbled up 8:12 of the first quarter ending in Greco's fifth touchdown run of the season. Greco finished with 12 carries for 54 yards.
Roberson, who snared a game-high and season-high seven passes for 67 yards, added his fifth touchdown reception to highlight a 13-play, 79-yard drive in the second quarter.
Mahla's sixth touchdown run of the season capped a 10-play, 61-yard in the final period. Mahla finished with 12 carries for 58 yards.
Senior wide receiver/slot back Ben Noury chipped in 20 yards in the final drive. He finished seven carries for 58 yards.
More importantly, the Eagle defense continued to flourish limiting the Leopards (2-4 overall) to 146 yards total offense – 16 yards below their average – while committing three second-half turnovers.
Ex-Leopard Stan Miele recovered a fumble paving the way to Mahla's score while both Noury and Roberson added interceptions off HHS junior QB Kall Daniel (3-of-10 passing, 47 yards).
How satisfying was the fumble recovery against his former teammates?
"It was awesome," said the 18-year-old Miele. "A lot of those guys were talking junk yesterday. Today, I was on cloud nine. Words can't describe when I saw that ball come free."
What about Hernando?
"They're a good team that hasn't put it all together," said Miele. "They just need to play together more. They smacked us a round a little bit early on, but once we got the wheels moving, we played harder."

Springstead 21, Hernando 0
Qtr. Scoring     1   2   3   4
Hernando      0   0   0   0 --0
Springstead 7   7   0   7 --21

Individual Scoring:
SPG – Greco 6 run (Schafer kick)
SPG – Roberson 12 pass from Mahla (Schafer kick)
SPG - Mahla 6 run (Schafer kick)
 
    HER SPG
First Downs   6   17
Atts./Rushing Yds.  29-99   39-177
Comp./Pass Atts./Int.  3-10-2 13-21-0
Passing Yds.   47    133
Total Offense   39-146   60-310
Fumbles/Lost   1-1   1-1
Return Yards   5-45   1-0
Punts/Avg.   3-43.0   3-30.3
Penalties   7-64   4-27

Sports Editor Tony Castro can be reached at (352) 544-5278 or online at acastro@hernandotoday.com.

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