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Spock's Heads-Up Play, Long FG Preserve LOL Win

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By BART O'CONNELL

Tribune correspondent

Published: September 20, 2008

LAND O’ LAKES - Always looking for a way to improve his team, Land O' Lakes coach John Benedetto was concerned about his offense after Friday night's 11-3 win against Zephyrhills.

The unit wasn't in the game mentally, he emphasized. Quarterback Stephen Weatherford didn't handle the Bulldogs' pressure well, the offensive line was being outhit, and the receivers made a few uncharacteristic drops in the open field.

Benedetto's assessment was right about everybody on offense, except senior Alex Spock. It's not often a punter and kicker can be a difference-maker, but in a typically rough and rugged game with the Bulldogs, Spock was exactly that.

If he hadn't been so calm and cool under pressure — kicking a career-long 47-yard field goal and drawing a roughing-the-kicker penalty on a punt snap over his head in the Zephyrhills' red zone — the Gators may be 1-2.

"We work on that a little bit … catching it and running with it before kicking it, so I think he's used to doing that. It was a great play on his part," Benedetto said of Spock's punt recovery. "And we got the roughing-the-kicker, which kept our drive alive, and took more time off the clock before that field goal."

With the score 8-3 in the fourth quarter, Spock dropped back to punt, and the snap flew a foot over the 6-foot-1 senior's outstretched arms. He turned his back to the line of scrimmage in a desperate attempt to recover the ball inside the LOL 5-yard line, while Bulldogs' speedy edge rusher Ben Williams was gaining ground on him.

"I felt it going over and as soon as I jumped and couldn't reach it, I thought, 'Oh, man, I'm not sure what's going to happen now," Spock said. "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pick it up and make it past [Williams]."

It appeared to be the break that a struggling Zephyrhills offense had been waiting for, but Spock, who is mulling a scholarship offer from Villanova as a soccer goalkeeper, showed the speed of a forward and the power of a fullback, actually breaking a Williams tackle with the ball in his hands.

He scooped it up, sprinted a little right like a rugby kicker and booted a decent punt down the right sideline, while being hit again by the Zephyrhills defense. A flag was thrown for roughing-the-kicker, giving Land O' Lakes an automatic first down in Zephyrhills territory.

"We had our chances, penalties killed us," Zephyrhills coach Tom Fisher said in a similar way as he did after last week's 11-9 loss to Mitchell. "We let them get out of there."

The Gators took advantage of the amazing play, running the ball six consecutive times to set up a career-long 47-yard field-goal attempt. Spock nailed the kick end over end, sneaking it over the crossbar to restore Land O' Lakes' eight-point lead (thanks to a Tyler Peak 49-yard run) from their opening drive.

Land O' Lakes is 2-1 entering next week's Class 4A-District 8 opener against Springstead (2-1), a much-improved team from a year ago. Benedetto hasn't seen the Eagles' triple-option offense since the Gators' 14-0 win in Spring Hill last Sept. 21.

Bart O'Connell can be reached at tampasport@gmail.com.

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