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By JOHN SCHWARB
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2001
TARPON SPRINGS -- It is a cardinal rule of special teams -- never field a punt inside your 10-yard line.
Roshawn Marshall, however, will occasionally bend the rules. Or sometimes break them for a touchdown.
The Tarpon Springs senior electrified the home crowd with a 96-yard punt return for a score in the first quarter, and later added another touchdown in a 28-3 Spongers rout of Pinellas Park.
The punt, coming after a Patriots drive stalled at the Spongers' 43, appeared to be one better left alone as it bounded toward the goal line. But Marshall took advantage of a friendly bounce, deked a defender who was expecting to down the ball, and dashed to the right and away from everyone.
"Coach told me to let it go, but I baited (the defender)," Marshall said. "I just got lucky, caught it on the bounce and had some blocking downfield."
The score put Tarpon up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, and then the Spongers defense protected the margin early in the second. A fumbled snap gave the ball to Pinellas Park at the Spongers' 3-yard line, but the Patriots could muster only one yard in three plays and settled for a chip-shot field goal to get to 14-3.
On the next series Tarpon (2-0) took advantage of a Pinellas Park holding call on a reverse to Marshall that was stuffed, and with new life in the drive ended up scoring on a 4-yard run from fullback John Lajb.
Up 21-3, Tarpon got the ball again with a minute left in the half and appeared content to take the lead into the locker room. But at the Pinellas Park 45-yard line with five seconds left, Marshall asked coach Don Davis for a Hail Mary.
"I begged him, and he said "if you don't catch it, you owe me laps,"' Marshall said.
Instead, Marshall pulled down the Anthony Houllis pass in double coverage at the 10, and took it in for a touchdown and a 28-3 advantage.
Pinellas Park (0-2) completed one pass and had 72 yards of total offense. Tarpon ran the ball 50 times for 246 yards, including 166 from Jeremy Saunders.
The game got ugly in the second half. The Pinellas Park defense became talkative, Marshall accused a Patriots player of a late hit to his knee, and Tarpon lineman Trevor McGarvey was ejected for allegedly throwing a punch.
"All that stuff, and they kicked out of one our guys," Davis said. "I'm going to look at it on film and see if I can appeal it. We haven't had a kid kicked out of a game in 15 years."