Sports

Pinellas: Sunday morning quarterback

By BOB PUTNAM and BRANDON WRIGHT, Times Staff Writers
Published September 23, 2007

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It was another crazy week in area football. As always, we learned a few things (we think Jeff Brinson is a pretty good player), laughed at a few things (paging Jose Smith) and were wrong about a few things (yes, we did pick Clearwater). Northeast picked up a big win at Southeast to open the district schedule, proving last year's win was no fluke, while East Lake's secondary was outstanding, picking off Clearwater's Luke Loucks five times. Northside Christian hung in there with a tough Fort Meade squad, one the Mustangs will likely see again in the playoffs. And how about Gibbs' special teams? Did they really block another punt and return it for a score?

Offensive player of the week

Adaris Bellamy
Dunedin, running back

The junior was miffed that he wasn't being mentioned in the same breath as Largo's Brynn Harvey and Northeast's Jeff Brinson. Bellamy, right, showed he belonged by rushing for 278 yards and scoring three touchdowns before leaving early in the fourth quarter in the Falcons' win over Countryside.

Defensive player of the week

Brian Groc
East Lake, defensive back

The Eagles were supposed to have their hands full against Clearwater quarterback Luke Loucks, the county's passing leader. But Groc, left, made Loucks' life miserable with two interceptions, six tackles and four passes defended.

Top performers

Larry Murphy, Gibbs: He scored on a recovered blocked punt and an interception return in a win over Dixie Hollins.

Randall Klafter, Boca Ciega: The placekicker accounted for all the Pirates' points, hitting four field goals against Lakewood.

Jeff Brinson, Northeast: The Brinson Express rolled to 313 more yards and three scores. And he gave each one of his linemen props to the press after the game.

Braden Dollar, Calvary Christian: Dollar was right on the money Friday, rushing for 135 yards and adding another 24 receiving. He also caught a 10-yard touchdown pass.

Joey Cuda, Canterbury: Cuda (194 rushing yards) fell 6 yards short of 200. He added 36 yards receiving and a pair of touchdown catches.

Brandon Hamilton, Canterbury: Hamilton was a perfect 7-of-7 for 89 yards and four passing touchdowns in the Crusaders' 49-0 rout of Mandarin Christian. He also added a pair of scores on the ground.

Jonny Sitton, Indian Rocks Christian: Sitton picked up 105 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns in a 34-7 win against Lakeland Christian.

In a rush!

Largo's Brynn Harvey and Northeast's Jeff Brinson are each trying to break the county rushing record of 2,490 yards set by former Packer Dexter McCluster. Here are each of their totals after Week 4.

Jeff Brinson
Week 1: 386 yards
Week 2: 316 yards
Week 3: 145 yards
Week 4: 313 yards
Total: 1,160 yards

Brynn Harvey

Week 1: 246 yards
Week 2: 264 yards
Week 3: Bye
Week 4: 216 yards
Total: 726 yard

Dexter McCluster

Week 1: 222 yards
Week 2: 292 yards
Week 3: bye
Week 4: 155 yards
Total: 669 yards

Touching tribute

The Northeast football players wore a sticker on their helmets Friday against Southeast as a tribute to classmate Raquel Carreras, above, who was killed Sept.15 in a car wreck.

Carreras, 14, was a cheerleader on Northeast's junior varsity squad. A number of girls missed Friday's game to attend Carreras' funeral, but even more decided to attend.

"Raquel was such a sweet girl, and she loved cheerleading," Northeast cheerleading coach Ruth Witoshynsky said. "She would have wanted for us to be out here tonight."

The Northeast players wore black stickers with the initials R.C. etched in white. Perhaps even more stirring was that host Southeast observed a moment of silence before the game.

"We didn't even ask them to do that or anything," Witoshynsky said. "Southeast did that all on their own, and I thought it was extremely classy.

"It will take time for this pain that we all feel to heal, but in time it will. It will get better, but it will never go away."

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 00:02:13]