Rattlers strike in final minutes, slip past Lecanto

Belleview struck twice in the final eight minutes of the final quarter, as quarterback Ernest Flyth threw a pair of scoring strikes, a 17-yarder to Eric McLaughlin with 6:47 remaining and the proverbial backbreaker, a 35-yard pass to JJ White with 1:51 left in the game. The Rattlers converted on the ensuing 2-point conversion following White’s TD reception, pushing its lead to 21-15.

Lecanto didn’t have a single day of practice this week because of weather, including lightning delays, said Panthers coach Wyndell “Chop” Alexander, whose team dropped to 0-1.

“I don’t want to put the blame on this,” Alexander said. “There’s only so much chalk talking and walk-throughs you can do in the cafeteria. You’ve got to put cleats in the dirt. I’m not going to put the blame on none of that.

“We just weren’t ready. They were a better team tonight. I tip my hat off to coach (Brian Lane). They put two halves together and they were victorious.”

Lecanto gave Belleview every chance it could in the second half, failing to move the ball with effectiveness as it had done in the opening half. The Panthers, who amassed 111 yards of offense in the first half, totaled 58 yards in the second half. But the lack of offensive execution wasn’t the lone issue for Lecanto in the second half. The Panthers were flagged seven times for 75 yards.

“It comes down to discipline,” Alexander said. “We’ve come a long ways, but we still have a ways to go. This isn’t us. We’re going to bounce back. We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on, but we’re going to be fine.”

After going to the air 11 times in the opening half, Lecanto threw just five times in the second half, with three of those attempts coming in the final two minutes of the contest.

“We were trying to milk the clock a little bit,” Alexander said about the second-half offensive strategy. “Every time you throw, you stop the clock, we just wanted to keep that clock running. It was working in our favor.”

In the opening half, Lecanto mixed up its offense with both the running and passing attack, as well as special teams. The Panthers, who forced a turnover on the Rattlers’ opening series, seemed poised to fail to capitalize on the early Belleview mistake, but Lecanto kicker Jack Levengood stunned the Rattlers as well as the crowd with a 45-yard field goal that barely cleared the crossbar, giving the Panthers an early 3-0 lead with 9:44 remaining in the opening quarter.

After trading possessions, Lecanto forced another turnover, when corner Donovan Foster picked off Flyth late in the opening quarter of action. The Panthers made it count, when four plays later quarterback Dalton Curry found receiver Darius Gainer cutting across midfield as Gainer hauled in the pass, scampering 68 yards for a score to extend Lecanto’s lead to 9-0.

Belleview, which was faltering offensively, tried to find a spark, faking a punt in the opening minutes of the second quarter. Lecanto snuffed out the play, forcing a turnover on downs and once again capitalized on the Rattlers’ miscue, chewing up the clock on a methodical six-play, 23-yard scoring drive, capped by Caden Moore’s 1-yard TD run. The score extended the Panthers’ lead to 15-0, seemingly putting them in the driver’s seat with 9:16 remaining in the second quarter.

Belleview finally got on the board with less than 5 minutes remaining in the half, when White scampered into the end zone from 6 yards to trim the Panthers lead to 15-7.

“We started out OK,” Alexander said about the first half.

Citrus, Seven Rivers earn road wins

After a slow start, the Citrus football team rallied in the second half for a 45-27 victory at Central (Brooksville) on Friday night.“They’re pretty good. They have a great passing game,” Citrus head coach McKinley Franklin said of Central. “We were in cover 3 and they were picking us apart. We went into halftime and made some adjustments. The kids played disciplined and played great football in the second half.”

Delonzo Washington had three rushing touchdowns for Citrus, while Colton McNeely added two scores on the ground. Cade Arnold had a touchdown pass to Camren Pagels.

“The offensive line, those guys worked really hard all summer and tonight they showed it,” Franklin said. “We will enjoy this one tonight and then tomorrow, we’re back to the drawing board. Have a tough game next week against Springstead.”

The Seven Rivers Christian football team traveled to Bell Creek Academy on Friday night and came home with a 32-20 road win.

Nehemiah Vann had three passing touchdowns in the victory, two to Josh Patrick and one to Brent Summers. Summers also had a pair of touchdowns on the ground in the season-opening win.

The Warriors (1-0) play at Cornerstone Charter Academy next Friday.