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Troy Adams lay motionless on the field in the final minute of the first half of Mitchell's loss to Lake Gibson on Friday, a price exacted from trying to tackle Lake Gibson tailback Travis Buford.
The crowd at Virgil Ramage Stadium fell silent for most of the 15 minutes play was halted.
"He was in la-la land," Mitchell coach Scott Schmitz said. "He took a pretty good hit. He said, "Sorry, Coach,' because he wanted to get up."
An ambulance transported the Mustang linebacker to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where Adams spent the better part of Friday night.
"He was out on the field for a little while. He didn't know what happened," said Adams' mother, Stephanie Walden, adding that at the hospital Adams was "alert. It looks good."
Reached Monday, Schmitz said Adams suffered "a mild concussion."
Before the hit, Adams, one of the Mustangs' more vocal players, encouraged his teammates on the sidelines and on the field.
"You miss that," Schmitz said of Adams' emotion.
WORKOUTS APLENTY: For Dale Caparaso, the biggest difference between his Pasco team and the Jefferson squad that ended the Pirates' season with a 69-22 drubbing Friday wasn't on the scoreboard.
It was in the weight room.
Caparaso said building strength will be a primary off-season focus starting today, when players start working toward next fall.
"We've never done any weightlifting since I've been here - we focused on agility, after we realized real quick we weren't going to win ballgames on strength," he said. "Strength was one of our down sides, and it's always been a big thing for my teams."
Caparaso's teams in Bellingham, Mass., were renowned as powerlifting champions, and the coach said a full winter and spring with a steady weight-room regimen will work wonders.
"Without a doubt, our kids will live in the weight room, four days a week, 21/2 hours a day," Caparaso said. "We will be a completely different team next year in terms of strength."
The Pirates' lack of muscle showed against Zephyrhills, he said, when the Pirates couldn't convert a fourth-down play that was "fourth down and less than a credit card to go."
MISSING PIECE: A key factor in Robinson's 28-7 win against Wesley Chapel on Friday was the Knights' receivers outleaping Wildcats defensive backs for several long passes. Wesley Chapel had to face Robinson's passing attack with Marcus Stewart, the team's biggest and best cover defensive back, out with a sprained ankle.
Stewart, who played sparingly in his last two regular-season games to rest the ankle, played some on offense, catching a 15-yard pass on the opening drive and scoring Wesley Chapel's only touchdown among his five carries. Stewart's 6-foot-1 frame would have been ideal to cover Robinson's Amando Murillo (6 feet) and Antonio Cotton (6-2), but the Wildcats tried to handle those two with 5-9 Joe Berenguer and 5-11 Aaron Dickler.
"Marcus stuck in there with heart, and he did a good job on the score," coach John Castelamare said.
GO AHEAD, RUN IT UP: Caparaso said his postgame comments about Jefferson piling on 34 unanswered points at the end weren't meant to say anything except that the Pirates would remember it.
"By no means did I mean to come off as crying," he said. "Their next-to-last touchdown was an absolutely magnificent play. The kid threw a nice ball, and they made a nice catch. Was it necessary? I don't think so. Was it there to send a message to our kids that we never dare go on the football field against Jefferson again? Shoot, I'm kind of glad he did it. We'd like another shot at them someday in the future when we can match up against their strength."