It's spring, but hits resemble fall
This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on May 27, 2003.
By JAMAL THALJI
NEW PORT RICHEY - At Wednesday night's Green-White intrasquad spring scrimmage, Gulf players knocked helmets like it was October.
Not even starting quarterback Jeff Blanchette was immune from the hit-fest. The Green signalcaller found himself taking more than his share of big hits and hard tackles from the White team, which was armed with seven defensive starters.
That set the tone for White's 13-7 victory and, the Bucs hope, the 2003 season as well.
"No one will leave here tonight saying we don't like to hit," coach Keith Newton told his players afterward. "There was some hard hitting going on out here."
It was an exciting contest by spring standards. Back-up quarterback Willie Rogers led White on two first-half scoring drives. He scored the first touchdown on a 6-yard sweep right with 11:36 left in the first quarter, a score set-up by fullback Jordan Stewart's 19-yard run.
In the second, Stewart set up Rogers again for a 3-yard score, but Joe Brandau blocked the extra point kick, keeping the lead at 13-0.
The Green finally scored with 5:41 left in the third, when Justin Sconiers took a pitch from Blanchette 3 yards for the score.
From there the White defense locked the Green out of the end zone, stopping Victor Rodriguez at the 1 on fourth down with 9:26 left.
The game was so intense assistant coach Mike Quarto was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the sideline, which left the Green coaches laughing.
HIT ME: Blanchette developed a reputation as one of the county's most elusive runners last season. He had to. The Bucs' running attack was anemic at best and Blanchette's 414 rushing yards and average of 4.9 yards per carry led the team.
But he found little running room Wednesday. If Gulf's defense can do that to Blanchette, what can they do to their real foes?
"I thought we were very aggressive on defense," Newton said. "That's something we had a lot of improvement to make from last year, and we did a good job of gang-tackling and being aggressive.
"They knew they were going to have to stop him and get some heat on him to become effective. Once he was on the run they knew he had to be stopped."
Leading the hit parade were linebackers Chris Whytsell, Brandau and Stewart.
On the defensive line it was Hakija Halilic, who will move from nose guard to end, Blaise Simon at the other end, and lineman Clint Beckley.
David Montanez, who will start at cornerback, made the defensive play of the game with 1:54 left in the first half with a leaping interception of a Blanchette pass to preserve White's 13-0 halftime lead.
KEEP AN EYE ON: To revitalize the running attack the Bucs will add a full backfield, wishbone formation, but it takes depth to do that.
Newton thinks he has that with Montanez, Sconiers and Taylor Cottril sharing tailback duties. Brandau, Stewart and Luke Faircloth will line up at fullback.
Sconiers will be a big part of new emphasis on the run in the fall.
The sophomore played junior varsity football as a freshman but skipped football last year because he thought it would affect his basketball skills. Wednesday he displayed speed and power, and broke off the game's longest run, for 38 yards.
Now he'll get the chance to show what he can do in both sports.
"He was a pleasant surprise for us to see," Newton said. "We knew he had the talent. It was just convincing him he could play basketball and football, that's what we had to do.
"He's a pretty strong kid, plus he's got some speed and he knows how to run the ball and find the hole."
TO BE CONTINUED: Fall practice starts Aug. 12. Gulf hosts a preseason jamboree at 7 p.m. Aug. 28 at W.D. "Des" Little Stadium with River Ridge and Wesley Chapel. Another team might be added.
