By Jeff Odom
Land O’ Lakes football coach Brian Wachtel will have a very tough decision going into his third season with the team — James Pensyl or Ethan Weilant.
For the first time in more than a decade, there is a wide-open competition for the Gators’ starting quarterback job between the two juniors-to-be. And, after Land O’ Lakes’ 35-15 spring game loss to Pasco at John Benedetto Stadium May 23, that battle has heated up even more.
Pensyl played all three quarters of the exhibition, because Weilant is still recovering from surgery to repair a right shoulder injury he sustained last season and was not in uniform.
With all eyes on him, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound signal caller finished 8-of-17 with one touchdown and one interception. He also added 30 rushing yards.
“He did some nice things tonight, there’s no doubt about it,” Wachtel said. “I’ve got to go in and watch the film and evaluate just everything that goes with the quarterback position in regards to the plays we called and what our reads were and different things like that. I thought he ran the ball extremely hard tonight; he threw the football well.”
Pensyl, who started the final six games of the regular season after Weilant’s injury against Springstead, said it was good to get back into the swing of things, despite the loss.
“I felt it was a great experience for us (as a team) to figure out where we stand this spring and just really get a leg up on next year,” Pensyl said. “We were going against the best talent in Pasco County, so we’ll be good next year.”
One of the biggest differences going into this season, Pensyl said, was his ability to see things better on the field and chalked that up to his experience late last year and throughout the spring working with Wachtel and Weilant.
“I felt that I have gotten better,” Pensyl said. “I saw the read more, and things have kind of slowed down to where I can see where the (defensive backs) were, and I read it. I just wish I made a couple different passes, but I understood it more, and I can really see what is going on.”
Land O’ Lakes used its running game and took advantage of multiple penalties to quickly pounce on Pasco’s defense in the first quarter.
Led by Pensyl and halfback Austin McGuire, the Gators drove from their own 20-yard-line all the way to the opponents 25 to set up an early scoring opportunity. But the Pirates, who finished one win shy of the state final four last season, recovered a fumble by McGuire.
The momentum from the stop carried over on Pasco’s offense and highly-recruited sophomore wide receiver Nate Craig Myers made Land O’ Lakes pay by taking a handoff 67 yards for a Pirates touchdown.
From there, Pasco never looked back and scored 35 unanswered points, until the Gators finally got on the scoreboard in the second quarter when they sacked quarterback Benjamin Chandler in the end zone for a safety.
“Right out of the gate, it starts with me,” Wachtel said. “So, there’s some things that, no doubt, we’re going to start next week evaluating some things that we’re doing. We gave up some big plays in key situations, we missed tackles, and those are fundamental things we’ve gotta continue to work on.”
Land O’ Lakes staged a late comeback in the second half by outscoring the Pirates 13-0 with touchdowns from McGuire and Kamal Wells, before the junior varsity players came into the game to get some reps in the fourth.
“I think overall, I’m proud of our players, because in the second half we responded to basically the challenge that was given,” Wachtel said. “There’s no doubt that Pasco’s a good football team, but in the second half, this football team definitely did some good things to correct the mistakes we made in the first half.”
