Pasco 39, Hudson 34

By CHRIS WAGENHEIM, Times Correspondent
Published September 22, 2007

DADE CITY - Trailing 28-19 at the end of the third, the Pirates scored 20 unanswered points and then held off a tough Hudson ground game to win 39-34.

"Just enough, that's all it has to be, right?" Pasco coach Tom McHugh said. "We've been preaching to them to never give up, never give up, never give up."

Two 53-yard runs, one by Jammall Haynes and one by Joshua Johnson, put the Pirates up 39-28 in the fourth quarter.

Haynes and Johnson combined for 230 yards on the ground, more than half of which came in the second half.

Johnson did a little of everything while helping his team win. The junior threw for 51 yards and a touchdown, brought down two passes for 52 yards and rushed for 103 yards and another touchdown.

The other contributor under center was D.J. Clower, who completed 9 of 13 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns. Clower hooked up with an unlikely target to start the fourth-quarter comeback: center Chris Burgos. He caught a 4-yard deflection in the end zone to come up with the score.

"It feels great," Burgos said. "I didn't really care about it until right now. We were losing, and it didn't count until right now."

The Cobras had 417 total yards of offense, with 174 of those coming from JoJo Cimino on eight carries. He had back-to-back runs of at least 75 yards.

The running game wound up deciding a game that had six lead changes. With less than 1 minute left to play, Haynes punched his way to a first down on third and 2. With only one timeout left, the Cobras could only watch as Clower kneeled his way to the victory.

Pasco 39 Hudson 34

[Last modified September 22, 2007, 00:43:18]