By Kyle LoJacono
The Gaither football team rode into Lakeland on Dec. 2 with an opportunity to capture the first regional championship in the program’s 27 years, but the vaunted Dreadnaughts denied the chance at history.
Lakeland (13-0) came out on top of the Class 7A regional finals 42-14, but just making it to the doorstep of the state final four already made the 2011 campaign one of the Cowboys’ (9-4) most successful seasons ever.
“I’m very proud to be a Cowboy,” said first-year Gaither coach Jason Stokes. “I love these kids and I love my staff. We just didn’t get it done today. It hurts. It hurts a lot to go through that with these kids and you hate for the seniors to have their time playing football here ended.
“I tell you what I’m happy for what we did,” Stokes continued. “No one expected us to get this far, and I’m proud of my boys and my staff, and I’m not going to hang my head.”
The Cowboys were playing in their first regional finals since 2000 and only their second ever. The squad’s nine wins are also more than the eight victories the program recorded during the previous three years combined.
“I’m so happy for us,” said Gaither wide receiver Carlo Perello. “I’m a senior and I didn’t want to go out this way, but we’re still all so happy. I bet nobody in the county expected us to get to this game on this day. I’m honored to have played with these boys.”
In contrast, Lakeland has made the postseason every year since 1993, has reached the regional finals each of the last four seasons and is fighting for the seventh state title in program history.
“We weren’t ready for the show yet,” Stokes said. “We weren’t ready for the big show. That kind of sums it up. … When I saw the big show, I don’t mean the distractions going on out here. I mean that team was just way bigger, faster and stronger than us. That’s really what it was and we got beat up in the trenches.”
Those distractions made for quite an atmosphere at Bryant Stadium, what with its 45-foot Jumbotron, cannons announcing every Dreadnaughts’ score and row after row of stands packed with fans circling the field. The Cowboys did not seem overwhelmed by the over-the-top nature of playing under the lights in Lakeland, but they just couldn’t match up with the Dreadnaughts’ speed.
Lakeland also felt like it could exact some level of vengeance against the Cowboys, as Hillsborough County schools have ended the Dreadnaughts’ season in three of the last four years.
“Tampa football has really come up strong over there the last four or five years,” said Lakeland coach Bill Castle. “(Gaither) is a good-coached football team, they show you a lot of different looks on defense, and they’ve had a great year themselves.”
The Dreadnaughts jumped out 14-0 in the first quarter and carried a 21-7 lead into halftime. Any chance of a comeback was extinguished by nine Gaither fumbles, six coming on the center-quarterback exchange.
The Cowboys gave up the ball on only one of those fumbles, but the lost downs hurt their chances to put together any consistent drives.
“You can’t move the ball with only two downs a series,” Stokes said. “It seemed that every time we got momentum, there was a bad snap.”
The first of those fumbles was the most costly for Gaither. Sophomore quarterback Alex McGough attempted a pitch, but he lost control of the ball and Lakeland pounced on the miscue on the Cowboys’ 5-yard line. The Dreadnaughts found the end zone three plays later for the game’s first points.
The turnover came one play after Gaither sophomore defensive back Amani Oruwariye picked off Lakeland quarterback Raheeme Dumas. The Cowboys forced two more turnovers in the contest, including a fumble recovered for a touchdown by junior linebacker Logan Marshall in the second quarter to make the score 14-7.
Gaither tried virtually every different defensive alignment to slow down the Dreadnaughts’ running game, but the Polk County squad managed to rack up 251 yards rushing in the contest.
On offense, the Cowboys were limited to 124 total yards thanks in part to 10 sacks. McGough appeared to suffer a lower body injury on one of the sacks on Gaither’s second possession of the third quarter.
McGough was knocked out of the game later in the same drive after taking a hit to the head on a quarterback keeper. He was diagnosed with a concussion on the field. The Wesley Chapel High transfer finished the game 5-of-10 passing for 36 yards.
Running back Shug Oyegunle moved under center and went 1-of-3 passing for 78 yards and one interception. The junior led the Cowboys to their only offensive touchdown on a seven-play drive capped by a 4-yard scoring run by Oyegunle punched in with 2:40 remaining in the game — their last possession for the season.
