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Leopards have added incentive

Despite securing a playoff berth, Hernando enters its final game hungry for a win. That's because it plays Pasco.

By DAVID MURPHY
Published November 4, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Apparently, it does not matter that Pasco has lost seven straight games. Apparently, it doesn't matter that Hernando has locked up a postseason berth. Apparently, it does not matter that a team with one eye on the playoffs is squaring off against a squad with both eyes on basketball season.

"When Hernando and Pasco play," said Hernando coach Matt Smith, whose Leopards face the Pirates tonight in both teams' regular-season finale, "the records don't matter.'

Make no mistake. For the Leopards, this is a sandwich game only in the sense that it's one they can't wait to devour. Though the tangible benefits or consequences of winning or losing essentially are nil, Hernando wants this one bad.

Last year, the Leopards walked into an ambush in Dade City. They amassed 54 yards of offense, turned over the ball six times and came out on the wrong end of a 62-6 rout. The loss sent Hernando into a seven-game nose-dive, and the Leopards finished the season 1-9.

"We just want to beat Pasco," quarterback Kyle Sizemore.

If they do, it will erase a little bit of history. Hernando has lost five straight to the Pirates dating back to 1999.

Sizemore, a senior who is in his first season at Hernando, has not been a part of the losing streak. But he does have his own ties to Pasco, having spent the first half of his freshman year at the school. Sizemore's step-father, Hernando assistant Allen Zifer, worked under former Pirates head coach Ricky Thomas.

In fact, Sizemore was at Pasco is 2002 when the Pirates beat Hernando 40-23. "I was a freshman," he said. "I didn't really play."

This week, he could share some time with back-up Raleigh Williams. A 5-foot-9, 158-pound junior, Williams led Hernando on a touchdown drive after replacing Sizemore late in the Leopards' 47-13 loss to Citrus. When asked if the former junior varsity starter would see time, Smith allowed only a suggestive, "We'll see."

Though Smith said he was impressed with Williams' performance against Citrus, there doesn't appear to be a quarterback controversy brewing. "It was good practice for next year," Williams said of the reps he saw last Friday.

With a win tonight, Hernando would finish the regular season at .500, a marked improvement from last year's 1-9 record and its first non-losing campaign since it finished 6-5 in 2002.

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 01:41:19]