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Hernando Today

Elite Eight!

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

HCA fullback Jeremy Knight, who went into Friday night’’s game as the county’s leading rusher and scorer carried 11 times for 66 yards against Foundation Academy at Walker Field. He chipped in two touchdowns (both 10-yarders) and was successful on five two-point conversions in the Lions’ 60-20 win in Winter Garden.

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By MARTY MILLER

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: October 25, 2008

WINTER GARDEN - There are times when scores of football games do not always tell a true story.
Take Friday night's 60-20 by the Hernando Christian Academy football team had over Foundation Academy at Walker Field to keep the Lions' record perfect at 8-0.
Three different times in the first half, Foundation had the lead over HCA. But in the end, it was the running attack of the Lions that did in Foundation as HCA scored the final 44 points of the game. The 60 points scored by HCA was also a school record for points in a game.
Jeremy Knight, Daniel Keyes and Ian Townsend all had two touchdowns each for HCA as the Lions finished the game with 412 yards rushing as they dominated the entire second half.
"When you have a big offensive line like we got, it makes it easy to run over people," said HCA Head Coach David Raley. "I've got an experienced line that knows what they are doing. At halftime, we made some adjustments to our blocking and then just ran them over in the second half."

Rough start

Things did not start out well for the Lions when after a 5-yard penalty on the opening kickoff, Kenny Strong took it back 74 yards for a touchdown.
Anthony Valenti kicked the point-after and Foundation led 7-0 with just 15 seconds gone in the game.
On the following kickoff, Townsend lost a fumble at his own 25. But just when things seemed at their worst, Townsend made up for his mistake when he picked up a fumble by Josh Mansingh at the Lion 30 at ran it back all the way for a 70-yard fumble return touchdown.
Jeremy Knight followed with the first of his five, two-point conversions and HCA led 8-7.
However, things kept turning around.
Later in the first quarter, Josh Mansingh ran in a 4-yard touchdown that made it 13-8 Foundation. Then HCA marched 81 yards for another score, with Knight going the last 10 yards.
But that failed to stop Foundation, who scored again on a 30-yard scoring pass from Wes Murray to Michael McBride that made the score 20-16 with 8:15 left in the first half.

Turning point

After that, it was all HCA as the Lions' offensive line dominated the game.
Late in the second quarter, Townsend broke loose for a 69-yard touchdown while later in the half David Rotteveel hit Keyes with a 10-yard scoring pass that made it 30-20 at halftime.
In the second half, HCA outscored Foundation 30-0 and outgained them in total yards 221-27 as Townsend finished with 104 yards rushing in five carries while Nate Kautsky had 106 yards in 15 carries.
In that half, Rotteveel continued his completion streak at 16 straight in the last three games as he threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Mikkola. HCA also got touchdowns in the second half from Knight on a 10-yard run, Keyes on a 13-yard run and a 1-yard scoring run from Nate Kautsky.
When asked if at any time in the first half he was nervous after watching Foundation score three times, Raley could afford to laugh after the game.
"Yes, I was nervous. But I knew are kids were going to come back and I think the big turnaround was the fumble return by Ian Townsend," he recalled. "If they go into score then, it's 14-0 and I don't know what would have happened after that."
The win puts HCA at 8-0 on the year with one game remaining in their regular season. Next Saturday night, HCA hosts Canterbury and a win would put the Lions in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference championship game Nov. 15 at the Villages High School.
"That's what we're shooting for now," said Raley. "We want to win next week and get into that title game. And they way we're playing now, I think we're going to do it."

HCA 60, Foundation Academy 20
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
HCA 8 22 16 14 – 60
FA 13 7 0 0 – 20
Individual Scoring:
FA - Strong 74 kickoff return (Valente kick)
HCA - Townsend 70 fumble recovery (Knight run)
FA - J. Mansingh 4 run (Murray run failed)
HCA - Knight 10 run (Knight run)
FA - McBride 30 pass from Murray (Valente kick)
HCA - Townsend 69 run (Knight run failed)
HCA - Keyes 10 pass from Rotteveel (Knight run)
HCA - Mikkola 10 pass from Rotteveel (Knight run)
HCA - Knight 10 run (Knight run)
HCA - Keyes 13 run (Knight run failed)
HCA - N. Kautsky 1 run (Wainscott run)

HCA FA
First downs 28 10
Rushing Atts./Yards 43-412 31-86
Pass Comp/Att./Int. 3-3-0 2-4-1
Yards passing 30 31
Total Offense 46-442 35-117
Return yards 72 163
Fumbles/Lost 3-2 6-2
Punts 0 2-37.5
Penalties 10-94 5-51

Individual statistics
RUSHING (Attempts, Yards, Long gain)
HCA: N. Kautsky 15-106, 17; Wainscott 1-19, 19; Blackburn 1-11, 11; Keyes 6-58, 17; Knight 11-66, 12; Adams 1-8, 8; Rotteveel 3-40, 14; Townsend 5-104, 69. FA: Greathouse 1-0, 0; Strong 7-21, 7; Murray 11-26, 17; J. Mansingh 11-32, 11; Valente 1-7, 7.
RECEIVING (Catches, Yards, Long gain)
HCA: Mikkola 1-10, 10; Keyes 1-10, 10; Townsend 1-10, 10. FA: McBride 1-30, 30; Strong 1-1, 1.
PASSING (Completions, Attempts, Interceptions, Yards, Touchdowns, Long gain)
HCA: Rotteveel 3-3-0, 30, 2, 10. FA: Murray 2-4-1, 31, 1, 30.

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