Everything Went Right in Sharks’ Home Opener

BROOKSVILLE — For now, Jackson Hoyt’s future can wait.

Sure, that baseball scholarship to the University of Florida has been tucked under his belt for a long time now. And there’s growing talk he could be selected in the Major League Baseball Draft next summer. But, for a couple more months, Hoyt just wants to live in the present.

That means one last season as the quarterback for the Nature Coast football team.

“I love the sport,” Hoyt said as he stood in the Shark Tank end zone after Friday night’s 39-0 victory against Pasco High. “It’s fun for me. A lot of people tried to talk me out of playing football my senior year. But there was no way I was going to do that.”

This game was pure fun for Hoyt and the 2-0 Sharks. Hoyt threw for 259 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 103 yards and one touchdown.

“That has to be the most balanced game by a quarterback in this area in a very long time,” Nature Coast coach Robert Kazmier said.

When he used the word “balanced” Kazmier might as well have been talking about his entire team. Offense, defense, special teams … everything went right for the Sharks in their home opener. The defense posted its first shutout of this season and its fourth since Kazmier took over last year The Sharks held Pasco to 33 yards on the ground and 14 yards through the air. The Nature Coast defense, led by junior defensive end Grant Lanning, intercepted Pasco quarterback Jackson Dietsch once and had him scrambling — unsuccessfully — for safety all night long.

“We’ll get the defense doughnuts (see: the same shape as the zero on Pasco’s side of the scoreboard) for this one,” Kazmier said. “They take pride in their doughnuts. Coach (Charles) Liggett (the Nature Coast defensive coordinator) does a fantastic job with the defense. I just stay out of the way and let him and the defense do their thing. They’re playing great right now and they’re only going to keep getting better because we’re young. We only start three seniors on defense.”

Aside from a couple of nice runs by Amerh Norris on Pasco’s opening drive, the Nature Coast defense dominated the Pirates (0-2). Of course, it helped that Hoyt gave them an early cushion. On the third play of the game, Hoyt took the snap and started running to his right. With a bunch of Pasco defenders converging on him, Hoyt quickly changed direction and broke off a 50-yardtouchdown run. Matthew Chancalay’s extra point, made it 7-0 and the Sharks never looked back.

“That got everybody excited,” Hoyt said.

Safety Dominic Picariello II picked up off a second-quarter Dietsch pass to to give the Sharks the ball at Pasco’s 20-yard line. Four plays later, junior running back Jasir Harvin scored on a one-yard run and a Timothy Gaynor run on the two-point conversion gave Nature Coast a 15-0 lead that grew to 18-0 when Chancalay made a 35-yard field goal with 2:57 left in the first half.

After that, the game belonged to Hoyt, who said he still is trying to catch up after missing much of summer practice while participating in baseball showcase events around the country. With 1:07 left in the first half, Hoyt connected with sophomore receiver Tyrae Jackson on a 33-yard touchdown pass and Chancalay booted the extra point as the Sharks carried a 25-0 lead into halftime.

But Hoyt was just starting to heat up. On Nature Coast’s first possession of the second half, Hoyt threw a mid-range pass to Harvin, who outraced the Pasco secondary on his way to a 70-yard touchdown. With Lanning batting down several Pasco passes at the line of scrimmage and D’Trevion Wilson, Ben Harper and Dakota Wilson making big plays of their own, the defense shut down the Pirates

And Hoyt wasn’t done. With 5:28 left in the third quarter, Hoyt produced the game’s longest play when he found sophomore Gio Reyes on another mid-range pass that turned into an 80-yard touchdown and Chancalay’s extra point put the Sharks up by 39 points.

“I haven’t been hitting on my long passes,” Hoyt said. “So I was just looking at short-to-long passes and my receivers did a great job of making them into big plays.”

The Sharks are scheduled to play at Lecanto on Sept. 6. There are seven more regular-season games and perhaps a playoff run after that. Down the road, Hoyt knows his focus will switch back to baseball. For now, though, football is what matters.

“We all know that baseball is his future,” Kazmier said. “But you see games like this and you wonder where he could go with football if he chose that direction. He has a 4.5 grade-point average and he’s now taking all college-level classes. He has the size (6-foot-2 and 215 pounds) and he’s a lefty. If he went the football route, I very easily could see him in the Ivy League. But we’re just happy to have him playing football right now.”