CCC Marauders invade Hernando
By Don Haggard, BCP Contributor
Clearwater Central Catholic Marauders, the Class 3A, District 5 Runner-up, traveled north and held in check the Hernando High Leopards, the Class 6A, District 6 Champs, 20 to 7 in the Spring contest.
CCC was led offensively by Junior-to-be Blake Gomez who hit on 12 of 17 passes for 127 yards and 1 TD. His only miscue was an overthrown pass in the 2nd quarter which resulted in an interception deep in Leopards territory. On the last play of the third quarter, Blake rolled out left and hit last year’s QB Jake Shade for a 22 yard touchdown to extend CCC lead to 13-0; CCC had two field goals in the first quarter.
The Marauders final touchdown came with 3 minutes left in game to put the game out of reach by Sophomore-to-be backup QB, Jeff Smith, who hit Trey Larry, with a 23 yard touchdown. Smith was 2 for 3 passing for 31 yards, 1 TD, while Larry led his team in receiving with 6 catches for 87 yards (catching at least one pass in every quarter).
The leading CCC Rusher was Junior-to-be, Diquan Walker, 13 carries for 63 yards, most came in the First Quarter. CCC played many players in different positions this night, 6 players carried the ball while 5 caught passes.
On Defense, CCC also had a solid team effort. Interception by DB Calvin Pringles, Fumble Recovery by Junior-to-be LB Ethan Thompson, excellent defensive line play by Jordan Adderley who had sack, multiple tackles for loss, and show a lot of range for a DE. DB Ron Laessign had hard finishing hits throughout the game.
The Marauders played a solid spring game while missing 5 players who were injuried in the last 2 weeks including D-1 Prospect, RB/DB, Michael Stevenson.
Hernando scored with 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter to pull within 13-7 on a strong run up the middle by Junior-to-be RB Jeremiah Jackson for a 28-yard touchdown but then CCC answered with a 5 minute, 70 yard drive to put the game out of reach.
Leopards D-1 Prospect, ATH Tyrail Hawkins, played a limited role with 9 touches and still came away with 109 total yards including 4 Catches for 89 Yards with the largest coming on a 43 yard pass from returning Ra’shaad Hart who academically ineligible in 2011 and was the Hernando’s starting QB in 2010.
Hawkins has college offers from Georiga Southern and just this week from D-1 Ball State and will surely attract more attention this summer and his Senior year. This young man is an impressive talent.
On defense, DE Richard Hudson led the Leopards with a Sack and in Tackles for Loss and CB Andre Southall had an Interception.