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Mistakes beat Lecanto, 13-12

By KEITH NIEBUHR

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 1, 2001

Lecanto coach Dick Slack was happy with the effort, but disappointed with the execution.

In a 13-12 loss to Tavares, the Panthers did themselves in with several breakdowns at the wrong moments.

In the final quarter, they allowed a defender to break two tackles for a 20-yard score on third and 20, came up 6 inches short on fourth down deep in Tavares territory and fumbled away the ball at the Bulldogs' 25 with 1:05 left.

"We had key breakdowns at critical times," Slack said. "We didn't execute. We had some broken plays and some missed tackles. We wanted to win more than anything."

Lecanto (0-1) has lost 13 consecutive games dating back to the 1999 season. Tavares (1-0) won just once in 2000.

The Panthers' biggest miscue was their fourth-quarter fumble. After playing turnover-free ball for nearly 47 minutes, quarterback Phil Reed and running back Terence Hollis -- both of whom performed well most of the game -- appeared to run into each other. The ball was jarred loose by defensive tackle Sammy Young, who then recovered it.

"It was a broken play," Slack said. "We were two evenly matched teams. We had a lot of mistakes, and we cannot have those types of mistakes and win."

Lecanto had no timeouts left, so Bulldogs quarterback Chris Cochran took three consecutive knees to run out the clock.

"We were dead," Tavares coach George Sneed said. "Our guys couldn't breathe."

Lecanto, which outgained the Bulldogs 333-212, appeared well on its way to winning after running back Jeff Yearwood went 77 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the third quarter to give the Panthers a 12-7 lead.

But Tavares answered early in the fourth quarter with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that ended on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Cochran to Cole Scharlau with 8:35 remaining. After a failed 2-point conversion run, the Bulldogs led 13-12.

On the Panthers' next offensive play, Mike Perrino raced 51 yards on a reverse to the Tavares 23. The drive stalled four plays later when Reed came up just short as he dove for the first-down marker.

"The effort is there," Slack said. "But there was a broken play here and broken play there. The kids wanted it badly, and they're very disappointed. We'll see how they react this week."

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