Central shows glimmers of progress

For a few moments in the second half Friday night, the home crowd at the Bears' Den had something to celebrate.

A dormant offense held to zero first downs in the opening half had suddenly come to life, piecing together one touchdown drive and on the verge of completing another.

Just as quickly the positive vibes vanished thanks to a fumble only a few yards shy of the end zone, and a pair of late scores turned a preseason fall classic into a runaway for visiting Pinellas Park, 35-7.

"I think we ran eight or nine varsity plays (in the first half)," Central Head Coach Mike Einspahr said. "It's tough to get any kind of offensive cohesion going. We're still learning. We're still young as far as football players.

"... We've got some holes to fill. They had some backs that could move."

The Bears committed five turnovers (three interceptions, two lost fumbles) and allowed the Patriots to total 284 yards rushing.

Four backs combined for that damage on the ground: Michael Smith (13 carries, 80 yards), Marquise Samuel (nine carries, 68 yards, one touchdown), Ivan Carasco (six carries, 42 yards, one touchdown) and Garret Nevitt (five carries, 40 yards).

Samuel also picked off two passes in the opening half, as Pinellas Park built a 14-0 advantage at halftime that grew to 21-0 in the third quarter.

Patriot quarterback Jessie Hevia connected on a pair of touchdown strikes, one for 13 yards to Smith and another from 10 yards out to Brandon Hames.

Central actually ran only seven offensive plays in the second quarter after the junior varsity squads took the field in the first.

Following a fumble recovery Josh Burkhart found DeAntre Jackson with a 14-yard pass to record the Bears' initial first down with 1:57 remaining in the third.

Those two also hooked up for a 27-yard pass play to put Central on the Patriot 1. Though a penalty briefly pushed the Bears back five yards, Burkhart eventually snuck in from a yard out on the final play of the quarter.

Burkhart, a senior in his first season as a fulltime varsity quarterback, went 6-of-15 passing for 88 yards with three interceptions. He did move the football with his legs, rushing five times for 25 yards.

"Momentum shifts like any football game," said Burkhart in describing the offensive turnaround. "We made mistakes and just didn't capitalize at the right time.

"... The offensive line blocked very well. I didn't get touched. When I made the right reads, I made the play. Not having played quarterback last year, I'm a little rusty. I'll get back on the right track."

Central additionally saw running back Jeremy Williams flash some playmaking capabilities. Aside from an impressive 41-yard kickoff return, the junior carried the ball six times for 39 yards.

He had two successive runs for a combined 19 yards in the fourth quarter that put the ball on the Pinellas Park 5. The Bears fumbled on the next play and the Patriots tacked on two late scores, the last on a 25-yard interception return by James Amlaw.

In the end the scoreboard didn't look much different than last season, when Central went 1-9. Still Einspahr, in his first year at the school, saw reasons to believe the Bears are headed in the right direction.

"We didn't quit," Einspahr said. "We found a way to get some things moving. The kids didn't quit. We came back. I didn't see anybody hanging their heads.

"... It's a very good step. We've got to be realistic on game speed, how hard we go. You don't see game speed in practice. I think this is a great step. We got the jitters out of the way. We've got film to look at, which will be a very good teaching tool.

"I'm preaching technique football. When you've got a lot of kids who haven't played, you're going to make young, inexperienced mistakes."

PINELLAS PARK 35, CENTRAL 7
Qtr. Scoring 1 2 3 4
PP 0 14 7 14 - 35
CEN 0 0 7 0 - 7

Individual Scoring:
PP - Samuel 5 run (Gaskin kick)
PP - M. Smith 13 pass from Hevia (Gaskin kick)
PP - Hames 10 pass from Hevia (Gaskin kick)
CEN - Burkhart 1 run (Miller kick)
PP - Carasco 5 run (Gaskin kick)
PP - Amlaw 25 interception return (Gaskin kick)

PP CEN
First Downs 19 7
Atts./Rushing Yds. 48-284 26-86
Comp./Pass Atts./Int. 6-16-0 6-15-3
Passing Yds. 110 88
Total Offense 64-394 41-174
Fumbles Lost 4-1 6-2
Return Yards 3-49 4-108
Punts/Avg. 4-29.8 4-32.5
Penalties 15-110 8-70