Tarpon Springs pulls off comeback victory over Northeast
By Chris Girandola
ST. PETERSBURG – Both Northeast and Tarpon Springs went into Friday night’s contest with quarterback issues with both starters on the sidelines.
Surprisingly, though, the backups put on an offensive show that excited the Homecoming crowd at Northeast as Vikings junior Taron Williams put up Xbox kind of numbers with 318 yards in the air, completing 22-of-30 passes, while Spongers senior Kenny Blanch had 101 yards passing and 74 yards on the ground.
In the end, after the Vikings had staked a 20-7 lead, the Spongers, who were playing with a new coach as well, turned it up a notch in the second half to pull out a 36-26 victory.
“We had to deal with a lot of adversity this week and we were facing a team dealing with some adversities of their own who put up an amazing fight tonight, so our guys showed a lot of character in how resilient they are and can be,” said Ronnie Hawn, who was promoted to interim coach in place of the fired Atif Austin after serving as the Spongers defensive coordinator the past two seasons. “It took our offense a little bit to get in synch, but once Kenny settled down back there, he proved how special he is. Then, our defense stepped up in the second half and made some key stops. It was a great win.”
Blanch, who normally lines up in the backfield as running back, started at quarterback in place of Louis Pappas, who was sidelined due to a mild concussion suffered in last week’s win at Dixie Hollins. Pappas, despite being given the go-ahead to play by doctors Friday morning, was suited up and ready to go, but was told he could not play due to a Florida High School Athletic Association rule that states a player must sit out at least 24 hours after being cleared to play.
The Spongers had a difficult time of it on their first two possessions with a few snaps to Blanch coming early or wide, forcing the Spongers to punt both times. The Vikings took advantage of a defense not knowing what to expect from Williams, who was inserted at starter after Northeast discovered Ryan Davis would be out 4-6 weeks with a fractured left wrist.
Williams shredded the Tarpon defense on their first drive of the game. The 5-foot-10 backup went 5-for-6 with 55 yards on the eight-play drive, capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by Demarkus Corbin that put the Vikings ahead 7-0 with a little over eight minutes left in the first.
After the Vikings fumbled on their next possession, they held the Spongers to a 3-and-out and Williams again sliced through the Tarpon defense with precision passing. Along with a nifty 35-yard run by Corbin, Williams completed two passes on the three-play drive, a 15-yarder to Jalin Hubbard and a 17-yard touchdown strike to Auggie Sanchez (9 receptions, 143 yards).
The Spongers came right back with Blanch finally settling in at quarterback as the 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior capped a four-play drive with a one-sneak to close the gap to 13-7 with a little under two minutes left in the first quarter. Blanch had runs of 12 and 34 yards on the drive.
“I haven’t played quarterback since my sophomore year at (Palm Harbor University) so it took me a little while to figure it all out again,” Blanch said. “Me and my line got on the same page and things began clicking for us.”
The Vikings (2-3), though, seemed as if they would run away with things as Austin May capped a 73-yard drive with a 3-yard run to give the Vikings a 20-7 lead with about seven minutes left before halftime.
Blanch, though, came right back, completing his first pass of the game on a 65-yard pass to Kenyatta Merriex down the left sideline to make it 20-13. Just before making the throw, Blanch received a little bit of advice from another “coach” of sorts.
“I talked to Kenny about how their defensive backs were pressing in and told him to look for (Merriex) on the fly,” Pappas said. “It worked out pretty good.”
Merriex then stopped the Vikings from taking a larger lead into halftime when the 5-foot-11 defensive back intercepted a pass from Williams intended for Sanchez in the end zone.
Merriex scored on a 65-yard run in the third quarter to bring the Spongers to within a 20-19 score. The Spongers were driving easily downfield again on their next possession when Tarrian Davis stripped the ball away from Merriex and returned it 75 yards to increase Northeast’s lead to 26-19 with a little over three minutes left in the third quarter.
The defenses held strong over the next couple of drives for each team before Blanch completed a 23-yard touchdown pass to Runaldo Wright to tie things up for the Spongers.
Spongers defensive end Jarret Battanyi then sacked Williams on the Vikings next offensive play, forcing a fumble that Alex Muchnok recovered. The Spongers took their first lead two plays later on a three-yard run by Blanch to put Tarpon ahead 33-26.
Michael Lontakos then sacked Williams with the Vikings facing a 4th-and-2 and Juan Regalado capped the Spongers’ stunning comeback with a 20-yard field goal to seal the victory.
“I was really nervous on the extra point to tie things and then even more so on the field goal,” Regalado said. “I was upset about the missed extra point before and wanted to make it up for my team. When it went through the uprights, I was thrilled.”
It was quite the sendoff for Regalado, who must return to Ecuador due to a visa issue. The senior kicker had made three field goals this season and accumulated 30 points.
The win propels the Spongers to a 4-1 overall record. Better yet, it keeps the momentum alive and gives the Spongers confidence they can deal with just about anything.
“Knowing we were able to play like this with everything that’s happened so far this season gives us the feeling we can accomplish great things moving forward,” said Pappas. “We’ll probably have (wide receiver Dondre Daley) back, we’ll be settled in with the coaching staff, I’ll be back so Kenny can move back to his natural position and we’ll have the full set of receivers. It’s pretty nice sitting where we are with the record we have. We could just as well be 1-4 now, but we’ve overcome adversity. Now, we just have to use that as stimulus for the rest of the season.”
The Spongers, who are 1-0 in District 6A-7 along with Largo and Lakewood Ranch, visit the Mustangs next Friday.