By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola
Hagerty scored the first three times they touched the ball and then held on to defeat Tohopekaliga, 26-14, in a game called by lightning in early in the fourth quarter.
The Huskies jumped out to a 14-0 lead, easily moving the ball 68 and 63 yards on their first two drives by gashing the Tigers defense for numerous big runs, including touchdown runs of 45 yards by Jalon Lewis and 36 yards by Porter Williams.
“They deserve some credit, they were running the ball hard,” Tigers coach Anthony Paradiso said. “But early in the game, we simply weren’t reacting to their delay handoffs. We dug ourselves into a deep hole early and unfortunately were unable to recover.”
Tohopekaliga managed to slow down the Hagerty momentum on its third possession, as junior quarterback Sabby Meassick directed a 65-yard drive that was capped on a 42-yard pass to Tre Punter to cut the gap to 14-7.
But an on-sides squib kick failed and the Huskies took over at midfield. They needed just three four plays to score, with Lewis running it over from the 10 to make it a 21-7 game.
The Tigers would answer on another long touchdown drive with Meassick making it a two-score game on touchdown pass to freshman Tony Brown. Tohopekaliga would then appear to gain the momentum on the next series. A strong third down pass rush led to Nashawn Noel picking off Huskies quarterback Caden Mitchell at the Hagerty 42. But the Tigers were whistled for a questionable roughing the passer penalty on the play and three downs later Williams broke loose on a 73-yard touchdown run to make it 26-14.
Still the Tigers had opportunities to get back in the game.
Meassick drove the Tigers down to the Huskies’ 9-yard line right before half but a bad snap from center and three incompletions kept it a 12-point lead at the half.
”The sequence before half really hurt us,” Paradiso said. “The roughing penalty was questionable, but I told our kids you can’t control the calls. The fact remained we were still in a one-score game but then we give up the huge run right after the penalty. You simply can’t afford to do that against a good team.”
Although the Tiger defense played well in the second half, its offense could not get anything going. Before the game was called by lightning, Tohopekaliga’s three third quarter possessions ended with the Tigers turning the ball over on downs twice to go with a Meassick interception.
“We missed two many opportunities at the end,” Paradiso added. “We had some things open and simply didn’t hit them.”
For the game, Meassick completed 14 of 31 for 202 yards and two touchdowns. Brown had eight catches for 114 and a score, Punter added four catches for 57 and a touchdown. Williams had 176 yards on 14 carries and Lewis added 99 on nine. Each rushed for two touchdowns.
Tohopekaliga (2-1) now has a bye week before traveling to Viera on Sept. 20
