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Hernando Today

Spongers Soak Up Central's Hopes, 44-7

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: October 31, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - The thread by which Central High's playoff hopes hung was officially cut Friday night at the Bears' Den.

The host Bears needed to beat visiting Tarpon Springs to have any sort of chance of snagging the runner-up regional berth in Class 4A, District 8.

Instead they suffered their third straight blowout loss at the hands of a district opponent, as the Spongers rolled to a 44-7 victory.

"Early I thought Tarpon tried to keep us in the game and we did not capitalize on some things," Central Head Coach Cliff Lohrey said. "We had some chances to start some momentum and we just didn't capitalize and to their credit they settled down."

Opportunity backfires

Lohrey referred to the three fumbles lost by Tarpon Springs (6-2 overall, 3-1 4A-8), not to mention a few potential interceptions that Central (3-5 overall, 1-3 4A-8) missed out on.

The Bears caught a break when the Spongers' opening drive stalled out on the Central 14 when Josiah Fisk fumbled, recovered by Brooks Reid.

However, Tarpon Springs still got on the board four plays later when a snap went over the punter's head and out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

Early in the second quarter, the Spongers made it 9-0 when Danny Reyes hit Savvas Damalos for a touchdown from three yards out.

With 2:16 remaining in the half, Reyes connected with Drew Kier for a 10-yard score just inside the right pylon.

Miles Toli then picked off a pass and Damalos caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Reyes to account for a 23-0 halftime advantage.

"I felt they were able to put points on the board just before the half, what happened there was Land O' Lakes was able to do the same thing last week," Lohrey said. "It may have flashed in the minds of some of our players."

The Spongers scored three times in the third quarter, invoking a running clock at the start of the fourth.

Central finally broke the shutout on the first play of the final period, Dallas Waugh finding Kevin Gibbemeyer streaking down the middle for a 56-yard touchdown.

Damalos and Bobby Vavlas each had a pair of touchdown receptions from Reyes, who completed 23-of-30 passes for 322 yards and tossed five scores against no picks.

The senior also ran in a touchdown on quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line, while placekicker Michael Hill connected on all six point-after attempts.

"They played real well," Tarpon Springs Head Coach George Kotis said of his team. "We were looking for our offensive line to improve its pass blocking and basically we came out here, we thought we were too fast for them to hang with us so we took this opportunity to get our passing game in gear.

"We took a good step. We're heading in the right direction."

The Spongers have a pivotal 4A-8 home contest this week against Springstead that has tremendous playoff implications for both teams.

"It's going to be huge," Kotis said. "We'll have Brighthouse there (broadcasting the game), it's our homecoming. The atmosphere is going to be awesome. It's the type of atmosphere I want our kids to be playing in."

Unfortunately for the Bears, they'll have no such experiences this year as they play out the final two weeks of the regular season.

"I hope that our coaching staff has instilled in our players a sense of pride in the game and a desire to just play football," Lohrey said. "I told our kids, I don't hide it, it's a devastating loss.

"I'd also like to present a challenge to our team to keep playing. We've still got two pretty big ones (River Ridge and Nature Coast) coming up."

TARPON SPRINGS 44, CENTRAL 7
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Tarpon Springs 2 21 21 0 – 44
Central 0 0 0 7 – 7

Individual Scoring:
TS – Safety (Snap out of end zone)
TS – Damalos 3 pass from Reyes (Hill kick)
TS – Kier 10 pass from Reyes (Hill kick)
TS – Damalos 13 pass from Reyes (Hill kick)
TS – Vavlas 9 pass from Reyes (Hill kick)
TS – Reyes 1 run (Hill kick)
TS – Vavlas 4 pass from Reyes (Hill kick)
CEN – Gibbemeyer 56 pass from Waugh (Rosario kick)

TS CEN
First Downs 19 7
Atts./Rushing Yds. 35-165 26-42
Comp./Pass Atts./Int. 24-31-0 5-15-2
Passing Yds. 345 88
Total Offense 66-510 41-130
Fumbles Lost 4-3 2-0
Return Yards 5-44 5-104
Punts/Avg. 1-40.0 5-33.8
Penalties 11-113 2-25

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at (352) 544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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