TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Seventh heaven

MIDDLE SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Parrott eighth-grade running back D'Andre Goodson tallied his team-leading 12th and 13th topuchdowns of the season in pacing the Leopards to their seventh straight county championship Tuesday night over Challenger K-8, 36-6.

ADVERTISEMENT

By TONY CASTRO SPORTS EDITOR

Hernando Today

Published: November 4, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - Through six games, or until Tuesday night at Tom Fisher Memorial Stadium, no Hernando County Middle School Conference football team achieved what Challenger K-8 accomplished.
Though the visiting Navigators dominated the first half time of possession and plays (27-8), Head Coach Brett Teitelman's team trailed 6-0 following a 75-yard touchdown scamper by Mondrell Brown. Brown would finish with 72 yards on eight carries.
Brown's eighth touchdown of the season with 65 seconds left in the first quarter arrived one play after a procedure call. Fortunately, the touchdown was not called back for the home fans, who watched the Leopards shoot themselves in the foot with a season high lack of focus -- 13 penalties for 76 yards.
Challenger K-8 remained in the game by playing keep away for the remainder of the first half.
Three plays into the second half, Parrott quarterback Kevin Hagood fumbled a center snap, the Leopards' lone turnover on the night would be recovered by Challenger's Lenny Beetz.
Three plays and 31 yards later, Challenger offensive guard-turned-fullback Jesse Gaudin spun away from two Leopard defenders and rumbled the final 15 yards into the end zone and into history. Gaudin finished with 20 yards on nine carries.
With 5:41 left in the third quarter, Challenger accomplished what no one else had -- tying Parrott at 6-all. Up to that point, Parrott had outscored the opposition 78-0.
Alas, fullback Joel Singer's extra-point point missed poorly to the right, 6-6. Singer, who enjoyed a yeoman's effort on defense, paced the Navigators with 51 rushing yards on 20 attempts.
From there on out, Parrott regained its composure by scoring the game's final 30 points on four straight possessions to win going away, 36-6.
The triumph clinched the Purple and Gold's seventh straight county championship completing a perfect 7-0 season, featuring an unblemished 5-0 conference slate.
The gutsy 'Gators, who were skinned 52-0 at Shark Tank Stadium earlier in the season, finished 3-4 overall and 2-3 in conference action.
"We're excited how we finished," explained Coach Teitelman, whose team gained a net 103 yards on 46 plays. "Hats go off to all our eighth graders. They made their last game a memorable one.
"The key was we tackled much better than the first time we played 'em," said Teitelman. "And we were in the game. We tried to take away the tailback, quarterback, fullback option from Parrott, but it's only a matter of time against those guys. Jesse (Gaudin) and Joel (Singer) did outstanding jobs for us."
Overall?
"We talked about being on the side of the 4-6 plays on the sideline that decide games," commented Coach Teitelman. "I'm very proud of our kids' efforts against a great football team."

Making the difference

With the game on the line, Parrott turned to eighth-grade fullback Jeremiah Jackson.
On defense, Jackson made four tackles on one series. On offense, he had one first half carry for one yard.
Four plays after Challenger tied the game, Jackson's 45-yard touchdown run -- his 11th of the season -- untied matters.
Brown followed with a two-point run at with 4:30 left in the third, 14-6.
Challenger, which failed on seven fourth down attempts turned the ball over on downs with 1:48 showing.
Two plays later Jackson, who finished with three carries for 88 yards, reeled off a 42-yard run to the Gator 6-yard line.
Three plays hence, Hagood scored on a keeper (his seventh of the season) from four yards out. Jackson added a two-point conversion with 26 seconds left in the third quarter, 22-6.
Parrott navigated 33 yards on six plays for its next touchdown. D'Andre Goodson, who finished with six carries for 79 yards, tallied the first of his two touchdowns on the night from 18 yards out.
Hagood's subsequent two-point pass to Brown upped the ledger to 30-6 with 5:02 left.
Four plays later, the hosts got the ball back and traversed 39 yards in five plays as Goodson covered the final 35 yards with 1:57 left. It didn't matter that back-up fullback Chris Luna's two-point conversion run was stopped short as Goodson's team-best 13th touchdown closed the scoring, 36-6.
Despite collecting his seventh straight county championship and eighth in nine years, Parrott Head Coach Dwayne Mobley wasn't in a particularly festive mood.
"Tonight was a lot like Homecoming Game," described the 10th-year Parrott skipper. "There were a lot of distractions. We had (pre-game) team photos, plus Parent Night; it was lot of little things and kept us off our routine. It seemed to all add up.
"We came out flat and this was the worst we've played all season," stressed Coach Mobley. "But our guys stuck to it. We did a lot of things that we don't normally do. Still, we found a way to win and that's what great teams do."
The catalyst?
"Jeremiah (Jackson) got us going," Mobley said. "He broke off a couple runs in the third quarter that got us going back in the right direction. Jeremiah helped wake us up and our line starting blocking again."
And Challenger?
"They were a different team than the one we saw earlier in the season," suggested Coach Mobley. "They didn't luck into anything. They earned their touchdown. Give those guys credit, they played us hard and forced us to play harder."

Parrott 36, Challenger K-8 6
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
Challenger 0 0 6 0 -- 6
Parrott 6 0 16 14 -- 36

Individual Scoring:
PAR - M. Brown 75 run (Goodson run fails).
CHAL - Gaudin 15 run (Singer kick fails).
PAR - Jackson 45 run (M. Brown run).
PAR - K. Hagood 4 run (Jackson run).
PAR - Goodson 18 run (M. Brown pass from K. Hagood).
PAR - Goodson 35 run (Luna run fails).

CHAL PAR
First Downs 9 3
Atts./Rushing Yds. 36-64 21-247
Comp./Pass Atts./Int. 3-10-0 0-7-0
Passing Yds. 39 0
Total Offense 46-103 28-247
Fumbles/Lost 5-57 3-1
Return Yards 0 2-58
Punts/Avg. 0 0
Penalties 4-32 13-76

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT