Zephyrhills nips Mitchell 20-19

By STEVE LEE
Published September 2, 2006

ZEPHYRHILLS - For the second straight week, upstart Zephyrhills defeated a Class 5A county rival.

Just barely.

Beau Barnes blocked a point-after attempt by Mitchell kicker Kevin Trapp after the Mustangs and the Sunshine Athletic Conference rivals traded 20 points in a run-and-shoot fourth quarter of the Bulldogs' 20-19 win.

"That's how big Beau is," Zephyrhills quarterback Sederrik Cunningham said. "If he doesn't block that, then that Land O'Lakes game was a fluke."

Zephyrhills, which beat the Gators in its opener, rallied from a 10-point third-quarter deficit with 14 points in the fourth quarter. Cunningham, who threw for 161 yards and ran for 107, followed up a Zephyrhills safety with a 31-yard sideline scoring pass to Michael Floyd.

But Mitchell scored 18 seconds after that touchdown to retake the lead. Tate Humphrey connected with E.J. Booze on a 21-yard pass and, two plays later, Kameron Greer had his only reception of the night, a 68-yard touchdown play in which he shook off Cunningham in the secondary.

"I blew up, but I came back," Cunningham said. "It wasn't just I, we came back."

Cannellios Ansley scored the winner, a 10-yard run with six minutes left and Trapp squibbled a potential winning 30-yard field goal with 25 seconds left.

Humphrey passed for 260 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 51 and a touchdown.

"We played well enough to win, but we didn't achieve our goal of getting better each week," Zephyrhills coach Tom Fisher said. "We've got a lot of work to do."

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 02:05:31]