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'Different' Blake routed

SARASOTA BOOKER 47, BLAKE 19: The Yellow Jackets rally before special teams mistakes cost them.

By ANTHONY GAGLIANO
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 19, 2002

SARASOTA -- Sometime during the 90-minute bus ride to Sarasota on Friday, Blake must have gotten lost. It bore no resemblance to the team that entered the game against 1-4 Booker undefeated in its district and was throttled 47-19.

"It was a totally different team," Blake coach Ricky Reynolds said. "Lots of stupid mistakes that we hadn't been making through the year. It was very embarrassing for myself and my coaching staff to come out and play like this."

The Yellow Jackets (3-4) were outplayed in all phases of the game. Booker had 189 passing yards in the first half to build a 20-10 lead. Blake started to creep back into the game to open the second half behind the methodical ground game of Justin Mitchell. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound junior carried 22 times for 162 yards. Aided by a good return to open the second half, the Yellow Jackets took over at their 40 and began feeding the ball to Mitchell. He busted loose for a 20-yard run to get the ball into Booker territory on the first play. On fourth and 3 at the 23, Mitchell slammed through the right side then hauled about four tacklers into the end zone to make it 20-17.

From there, special teams did in the Yellow Jackets as Daniel Phelps returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown. Phelps blocked a punt in the fourth quarter and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown to put the Tornadoes up 36-19.

Terrence Jones scored on runs of 7 and 30 yards late to seal it. Blake compounded its problems by committing 19 penalties for 135 yards.

"It started when we came in here," Reynolds said. "Guys were flat. From the beginning, the focus wasn't there. Even after warmups, we had to go in there and get on them because the spark in their eyes wasn't there."

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