St. Petersburg – The 1-2 East Lake Eagles entered the home of the 2-1 St. Petersburg Green Devils with something to prove and wounds to heal. Two losses in one season matched the total amount of losses the Eagles totaled in 2013 and 2014 combined. St. Petersburg took their home field under the Bright House Sports Network lights and cameras looking to take and early lead in the class 7A-9 district.
It didn’t take long for for the firework show to start. Darius Miller was a man amongst boys last night. He started the scoring frenzy just two plays into the game gliding 53 yards for the first score of the game and the first of his 4 rushing TDs on the night and 53 of his 277 yards. St. Pete stuck with their game plan all night long. Very simple, grind out the middle with Jacquel Waller and then hit the Eagles hard on the outside with Darius Miller. It seemed to work well.
Miller out did his previous game performance of 179 yards versus Osceola and Waller posted 130 yards against Gibbs and 184 yards against Osceola. So the targeted offensive playmakers were identified. East Lake just had no answer to stop them.
Defensively, St. Petersburg challenge East Lake to beat them with the pass. The Eagles are a heavy playaction team and it has been a thorn in the side of opponents the last few seasons. The thing about the playaction, it only works if one aspect of the offense is having success. St. Pete did a tremendous job suffocating the Eagle run attack which limited the effectiveness of the playaction component. The Green Devils stacked the box with 8 men all night long and controlled the box with speed and aggressiveness.
Bryce Miller and Kyle Fearrington were the brights spots for the East Lake offense. Both receivers caught the ball well and contributed to the Eagle scoring. QB Bobby Goldinak played good enough. He was harassed much of the night. But when he had time he was really effective.
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East Lake falls to 1-3 (0-1) and St. Petersburg advances to 3-1 (1-0). The Eagles will host rival Tarpon Springs next week and The Green Devils wills travel to Largo.