Wesley Chapel football program moves forward

It only made sense.

The Wesley Chapel football team lost its two quarterbacks over the summer. One transferred, while the other chose to focus on his baseball career.

The Wildcats' top receiver transferred to Pasco before the spring, while the squad's bruising running back transferred to a Tampa private school.

The team entered Friday night starting seven sophomores, including quarterback Keegan Tanner.

When you look up the recipe for a trying season, those items are prominent in that serving of aggravation goulash. So it just made sense for Wesley Chapel to go into a game against an undefeated Wiregrass as underdogs.

Excuse Wesley Chapel (1-2) for not believing in that sort of press. They dominated the Bulls (2-1) en route to a 23-8 victory.

"It was something that was bothering these kids and it bothered us," Wesley Chapel coach John Castelamare said. "You got to go on. You got to practice get ready. You don't see me saying anything about it in the paper. I don't want names in the paper. I told these guys you're a good enough team to make an impression in this county and district.

"I think we did great tonight. Coach (Jeremy) Shobe does a great job over there at Wiregrass. Our third year we were undefeated, so they're coming in 2-0 and I'm sure they were all fired up and everything. He's doing a heck of a job getting them all ready."

Wiregrass didn't earn a first down until its seventh and final drive of the first half. In the first three quarters, Wiregrass fumbled the ball four times, losing one, while another resulted in a safety. The Bulls also turned the ball over on an interception. In all, the team had four turnovers.

Despite not having the most stellar of numbers (2-of-7 passes for 57 yards and eight carries for 21 yards), Tanner's control of his offense and maturation as a burgeoning leader paid dividends.

"It's hard for a sophomore to tell a senior what to do, but I told him, he needs to do that," Castelamare said. "And he's 5-foot-8, 150 (pounds) maybe."

Regardless of stature, his moment of leadership revealed itself near the five minute mark of the second quarter when a pass was dropped by an upperclassman. The catch would have netted a first down and kept the drive going. Instead, the Wildcats had to punt two plays later.

Tanner immediately barked: "Catch the football!"

"When everybody left us, everybody was downing us and I was the little whatever you want to call it. And everyone was downing us saying we weren't going to do good," Tanner said. "I just had to step in there and take control of the team. ... I told him catch the ball and he came back to the huddle and said, 'My bad.' And I said, it's OK, let's just keep going with it."

The first win of the season came on the heels of a 35-10 loss to Hudson and a 10-6 loss to Clearwater Central Catholic.

Those results invoked an overhaul in the Wesley Chapel players practiced.

"We practiced a lot harder," Jon Mahan said "In the weight room, we stopped talking. We came out to practice and we did everything the coaches told us to do the first time. No more playing in the huddles, no more nothing."

Sounds like a recipe for winning.