Pasco makes it four straight against Land O’ Lakes
By Kyle LoJacono
For the first time, a group of Pasco High seniors will leave school 4-0 against Land O’ Lakes High after defeating their Class 3A, District 7 rival 20-14 Oct. 22.
The Pirates (7-0) forced four first-half turnovers, two lost fumbles and two interceptions, to take a 14-0 lead at halftime. The Gators (6-1) scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, but the comeback came up short.
“The difference is with us playing Gator football. We didn’t do that in the beginning,” said Land O’ Lakes coach Matt Kitchie. “We made mistakes offensively, but you know when you have four fumbles and lose two, shoot they should have been up 21 or 28 points.”
It was the first matchup between the two squads as unbeatens since 2007 and while the Gators turned things around in the second half, they appeared taken in by the magnitude early on.
“I think we came out and got a little over hyped and didn’t play Gator football,” Kitchie said. “It could have gone that way the rest of the second half, but some key things happened where we turned it around. But you know what, this is exciting. This was a great high school football game. Even though we lost it was a great high school football game.”
The Pirates recovered a fumble by senior tight end Jason Tello on the Gators first drive. Pasco capitalized on the first turnover, marching the ball 48 yards down the field capping the drive with a one-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Jacob Guy.
The Pirates signal caller finished 11 of 21 passing for 208 yards and two passing scores, one of 30 yards to senior wide receiver Mike Clower and another of 17 yards to junior wide receiver Trey Dudley-Giles.
Jacob is in his first season under center for Pasco. The matchup with the Gators was a little different for the first-year starter.
“I was a little nervous,” Jacob said. “This was my first big game against really another stud quarterback in Stephen Weatherford. He’s going to get first-team all conference because that’s how good he is.”
Weatherford, who had been averaging 271 yards per game entering the contest, was held to 12 of 29 passing for 126 yards.
“We got as prepared as we possibly could,” Jacob said. “I think our DBs went over so much that they knew what was coming on every play, which probably helped us and confused Weatherford a little bit because he’s not used to people knowing what’s coming.
“(Weatherford) will get back to work and we might see him down the road hopefully,” Jacob said of a potential rematch in the playoffs.
Jacob’s older brother Tyler, who was Freedom High’s quarterback last year and is currently redshirting at the University of South Florida, was at the game to watch his younger sibling.
“He’s just so calm and cool out there,” Tyler said of Jacob. “He’s so composed and he has been his whole life. They haven’t really played a big team like this since he’s been the starter and he came out here and played like he did the rest of the year.”
The Gators offense got on track on their 10th drive, which started with 37 seconds left in the third quarter. Land O’ Lakes went 53 yards down the field ending with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Will Irwin. Gators defensive end Jose Santana then made the big play that nearly turned the tide for Land O’ Lakes.
On first down of Pasco’s next drive the Gators defense forced a fumble that Santana scooped up on the Pirates 12. Land O’ Lakes scored two plays later on a four-yard touchdown run by senior running back Ryan Lane with 10:04 left in the game.
The Gators got the ball back once more, but were forced to punt. The Pirates got two first downs, forcing Land O’ Lakes to use its last timeout and then ran out the clock.
Kitchie tipped his cap to Pasco coach Tom McHugh.
“You’ve got to give it to coach McHugh,” Kitchie continued. “He had his kids coached up right and they did a great job.”
The win puts the Pirates in a tie for first place in the district with Sunlake High (7-0), which Pasco will face Nov. 5 after another league game against Mitchell High (5-3) Oct. 29.
“It’s putting us in the driver seat,” Dudley-Giles said of getting the district win against the Gators. “It’s a good test for us and we should be ready for Sunlake in a couple weeks and Mitchell next week.”
