The Laker/Lutz News

Sickles High School

Gainesville bumps Sunlake from postseason … again

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The rivalry between Sunlake and Land O’ Lakes high schools is obvious because of the close proximity of the two schools. But the Seahawks may have found a new rival in the Gainesville Hurricanes, which for the second year in a row, knocked them out of the state football playoffs.

Gainesville used two quick scores at the start of the game to cement what would become a 27-19 win Friday night in front of its home crowd. That finishes Sunlake’s season at 9-3 with the Class 6A-District 6 title.

Mitchell High School, the 6A-6 runner-up, also lost to Gainesville the previous week, giving the Hurricanes a clean sweep of the district as they ready for a tough regional finals matchup against Armwood High School.

In other games, according to published reports, Sickles fell to Tampa Bay Tech 20-16 in Class 7A, allowing the Titans a chance to face Osceola in the regional finals. That team out of Kissimmee beat Lakeland 35-28 in overtime to get there.

Lakewood topped River Ridge 26-3 in Class 5A action, while Suwannee — which beat Zephyrhills in a come-from-behind win last week — upset South Sumter 24-22.

Sunlake principal Steve Williams live-tweeted the game from his spot in Gainesville, and had nothing but good things to say about the Seahawks as they wrap up a strong season.

Sunlake also got kudos from elected officials as well, including new Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore, and state Rep. Richard Corcoran.

Steinbrenner/Gaither game gets lesson in texting, driving

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It’s a rare time to have football and Halloween on the same night, but AAA is going to make the best of it by sharing a true fright: texting and driving.

AAA and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office will attend Friday’s football game between Steinbrenner and Gaither high schools, where they hope to talk about the dangers teens face when they get behind the wheel. Of course, that becomes much more complicated when they decide to pull out their phone and text as well, according to a release.

The number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes by a distracted driver was 3,328, with another 421,000 people injured in 2012, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

During the Steinbrenner/Gaither game, both AAA and the sheriff’s office will hand out “Don’t Txt n Drive” T-shirts, show a public service announcement about teen driver safety, and ask teens in attendance to make a voluntary pledge to not text and drive.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at Steinbrenner, 5575 W. Lutz Lake Fern Road, in Lutz, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.

Steinbrenner (3-4-1) is looking to play spoiler in the game as Gaither (5-3-0) is looking for a way to break the three-way tie at the top of the Class 7A-District 7 standings it shares with Sickles and Tampa Bay Tech. Steinbrenner edged Freedom last week 7-6 to take them out of the district championship race, and dropping them to 4-4-0.