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Sunlake, Zephyrhills at Different Crossroads

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By BART O’CONNELL

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 17, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - Perhaps their game was close, but Zephyrhills and Sunlake feel miles apart, steamrolling in opposite directions.

The Seahawks, after losing 19 of their first 20 as a program entering this year, have risen into the top echelon of Pasco County football following Thursday's 7-0 victory at Bulldog Stadium. It was their first win ever against an East Pasco opponent, and ran their record to 3-3, 3-1 in Class 3A-District 7, behind undefeated teams Mitchell, Pasco and Land O' Lakes.

"We're a team to watch out for," said Sunlake quarterback Jacob Jackson, who had the game-winning 23-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, in the 11 months since the departure of Coach Tom Fisher, Zephyrhills (0-6, 0-4) has fallen into complete disarray under the tenure of co-head coaches Troy Hochstetler and Greg Mathis.

After failing to score a single point on two red zone trips, committing two turnovers, and racking up 18 penalties for 111 yards, the Bulldogs appear to be making no progress, particularly on offense.

Mathis, the co-head coach of the offense, has relinquished his play-calling duties to assistant Mike Penix, a Pasco alum, whom Mathis said he is "confident" in.

Penix scrapped the triple-option offense Mathis had planned to use, and is using more conventional two-and-three wide receiver sets, I-formation looks and the shotgun. But the change has done nothing to quell the frustration on the Bulldogs sideline and in the stands.

Home fans were loudly criticizing the offense during the second half, mainly over the penalties, most of which were delay-of-game, illegal formation or illegal substitution fouls – the type of mistakes that show a lack of preparation. Many of the players also were voicing their displeasure with the offense. And it seems everyone has their own idea about what could work, but nothing is.

"We've just looked flat," Mathis said.

On Friday the Bulldogs started their third different quarterback, Chris Reaves, who was the backup quarterback behind Tyler Guy last season but had been converted to a wide receiver under Mathis.

After failing to pick up a first down in three series, he was replaced by Chuck Smith, the starter in the opener, who was sacked three times and victimized by several key drops, including one in the end zone to a wide open receiver in the second half.

But Zephyrhills' night was summed up by two curious coaching decisions in the second half. After Josh Geiger intercepted Jackson and returned the ball 65 yards to the Sunlake 7, instead of leaving Smith in the game, Jamal Roberts, who had not touched the ball all night, took over at quarterback after playing receiver in the first half.

After an illegal substitution penalty, Roberts couldn't hold onto the snap and Sunlake recovered the fumble, ending the threat. Roberts played out the rest of the game at receiver and had no passes thrown his way.

The final surprising decision came on the Bulldogs' last offensive play, on fourth-and-5 from the Zephyrhills 27 with 1:22 to play and no timeouts.

The Bulldogs lined up in punt formation, an immediate sign that they would try a trick play since Sunlake could simply kneel on the ball to end the game if the ball was punted to them. Sure enough the fake came, and upback Alex Paniagua, who had converted a fake punt for a first down in the first half, scooped up a bad snap under center and looked for running room.

But the Seahawks were ready for the obvious fake, blew up the play through the middle and a desperation pitch back to Geiger led to a three-yard loss and a turnover.

"It was a play called by Coach Hochstetler and myself," Mathis said. "We thought it would work."

Like just about everything else Zephyrhills has tried this season, it didn't work.

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