Dragons rule air, Chiefs

Stephen Garcia pretty much completes passes at will to lead Jefferson 35-0 over Chamberlain.

By SCOTT PURKS
Published September 2, 2006

TAMPA - It looked a lot like pitch and catch. As easy as that, Stephen Garcia to Evan Cromer or Anthony Mackinnon or Byron Mcleod or ....

"Just about anybody he wanted to throw it to," Chamberlain coach Billy Turner said. "Even though we blitzed on just about every play he still had a lot of time. When we had guys about to get him he just ran away and made more time for himself.

"He must have had six seconds on every throw no matter what we did."

By game's end, Garcia had completed 14-of-20 - to six different players - for 254 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-0 victory for the Dragons (2-0).

"We had our team together tonight," Garcia said. "And I felt very comfortable out there."

About the only question on Friday night's resume was why he didn't start the game, which Jefferson coach Mike Fenton said came down a faulty chin strap.

"But then (backup quarterback Zack Grossi) was doing so well that we decided to just let him finish out the first series," Fenton said of a 45-yard drive that ended with a 16-yard touchdown pass to McLeod.

With chin strap in place, Garcia threw for a touchdown, a 47-yarder to Cromer, on his third toss of the night.

"We run that play (a play action) every single day in practice, and sure enough, the safety bit on the play action, and it came open just like we draw it up," said Garcia, who now needs under 2,300 yards to surpass the all-time county passing mark set by Tampa Catholic's Kenny Kelly in 1996 at 7,949 yards. "I guess practice made perfect."

Garcia's numbers on Friday were more in line with what's expected, as opposed to last week's 134 yards in a 19-10 victory over Middleton.

Fenton, however, pointed to the fact that last week's field and ball were waterlogged and Middleton was a more than worthy opponent.

This week Fenton made a point to praise his defense which not only shutout the Chiefs (1-1) but held them to 101 total yards and only 25 rushing on 25 carries.

"Any time you can shut out a Billy Turner-coached team, then you know you've done something special," Fenton said.

"All I know is that we couldn't do much of anything and we couldn't figure out how to make anything happen," Turner said. "I mean now that is a very, very fine football team that Jefferson has.

"And we are a very young football team and we were just outmanned in every aspect."

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 06:28:09]