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Pirates are not looking back
By CAREY FREEMAN CRYSTAL RIVER -- Second guesses come cheap. Crystal River coach Jere DeFoor knows that as well as anyone. Sure, there are some things he might have done differently. But, for the most part, DeFoor thinks he had the right game plan in a 36-12 playoff loss to Milton. The Panthers (10-2) just had too many good players. "I'd like to think we could have stopped them more on defense," DeFoor said. "But we had kids in there that have performed for us all year long doing the same things they've been doing for us all year. We just didn't stop them." There is a reason for that -- Bruce Hall. The Milton quarterback was the difference, passing for a game-high 276 yards and leading all rushers with 97 yards and two touchdowns. DeFoor -- who has faced the likes of Daunte Culpepper (Ocala Vanguard/Minnesota Vikings), Ryan Pickett (Zephyrhills/ St. Louis Rams) and Dez White (Jacksonville Bolles/Chicago Bears) in his 26-year career -- wouldn't call Hall the best. But the coach admittedHall clearly was one of the best players he's faced. "(Hall) did a great job," DeFoor said. "He either ran the option or kept it on quarterback leads and, when he didn't run, he got it deep. "It was like playing Florida or Florida State," DeFoor said. "You put people in the box, and they throw. And if you back off, they run it." It's a familiar refrain for Crystal River and its fans, which always seem to hit the talent wall somewhere around the second round of the playoffs. In 1996 -- the only time the Pirates advanced past Round 2 -- it was a Jacksonville Bolles squad ranked first in the country and boasting 10 NCAA Division I signees that ended Crystal River's season. In 1997, it was Pickett that dealt the Pirates a first-round loss. It was followed by consecutive second-round losses to Gainesville Eastside, Tampa Jefferson, Tampa Jesuit and Milton in the next four seasons. "Look at how many teams don't even make it to the second round," DeFoor said. "It seems like we read more about what we're not doing over what we've done to get there." The area playoff teams defeated in the opening round were Central, Dunnellon, Land O'Lakes, Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills. Only Zephyrhills (once) and Dunnellon have made it past the first round. "Before we got here, it seems like everyone who made the playoffs went up to (Alachua) Santa Fe and got beat (in the first round)," DeFoor said. "I feel like tradition-wise, us beating Suwannee (35-23) was a great win. And so was beating South Sumter, which has gone far in 2A before and is still going now. "In this area, we're a good football team," DeFoor said. "When we get out of this area, we come up against teams that are as good as us and some that are better." Either way, the last six seasons have been impressive. Crystal River won a county-best five district titles before being knocked off by North Marion this year, and the Pirates captured six consecutive Gulf Coast Athletic Conference championships. Whether that continues is up for debate. Crystal River will lose 18 seniors this spring, including starting quarterback Clayton Trenary, receiver/defensive backs Michael Jones and Scott Miller, tight end/defensive end Will Bleakley, middle linebacker Sam Force and five linemen. Helping matters, though, is that the Pirates return leading rusher Ryan McNally (1,637 yards, 26 touchdowns) and Chianta Smith (643, 11 touchdowns) along with linemen Norman Longfellow and Doug Massey. Defensively, the return of linebackers Josh Hall, Charles Slattery and Scott O'Steen should help too. "We're going to lose some outstanding seniors, and most of them played for us for two or three years," DeFoor said. "We've had some large senior classes before, but we've always had good classes behind them. This year we don't have quite that large a group coming back."
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