SPRING HILL — The start and the finish weren’t perfect, but just about everything in between was.
In a 27-second span of game clock around the end of the first half and the early second half, Springstead scored nine unanswered points to seize control of what had been a close game on the way to a 33-15 victory against Wesley Chapel on homecoming night at Booster Stadium.
“I’m a coach, so I’m going to nitpick,” coach Mike Garofano said. “We had a slow start and we didn’t finish like I would have liked. But wins are hard to come by and this was a district win on homecoming, so we’ll take it.”
The Eagles (7-1) rebounded nicely after having their hopes of an undefeated season disappear in a close loss to Wiregrass Ranch last week. The defense was dominant at times, the offense had some stellar moments and the special teams were nothing short of spectacular.
Senior kicker Raul Maldonado booted two field goals and perfectly executed an onsides kick to help the Eagles take control. Nothing was more important than Maldonado’s 41-yard field goal as the first-half clock ran out. After the defense forced a sack-fumble and and came up with the recovery with 1:07 left in the first half, the Springstead offense moved the ball downfield. But time was about to run out and Springstead’s field-goal unit scrambled onto the field with 15 seconds remaining until halftime. Maldonado was able to get the field-goal attempt off with about two seconds on the clock. The kick was good and the horn sounded with Springstead holding a 9-3 lead.
“That kick at the end of the first half was really big,” Garofano said. “That’s something we practice every Thursday and we know that it’s going to take 12 or 13 seconds for us to get the field-goal team on the field and get the kick off. We just made it.”
From there, Springstead’s momentum snowballed. On the second-half kickoff, Wesley Chapel unsuccessfully tried an onside kick and Springstead’s Antonio Graham pounced on the ball at midfield. It took the Eagles precisely one play to score again. Quarterback Gio Martinez and Tyree Davis connected on a 50-yard touchdown pass to give the Eagles a 15-3 lead.
After, the Springstead defense, led by Brenden Hoepker, Ryan Mongold and James Hicks, stalled a Wesley Chapel possession. The ensuing Springstead drive ended in another 41-yard field goal by Maldonado for an 18-3 lead heading into the final quarter. Springstead built the lead to 26-3 after backup running back Jadon Jaimes broke off a 43-yard touchdown run and Connor McCazzio ran for the two-point conversion.
McCazzio, who had been the running-game workhorse all game, wasn’t about to be upstaged by Jaimes. With 8:42 left in the game, McCazzio broke off an 82-yard touchdown run and Maldonado kicked the extra point to put Springstead ahead 33-3 with 8:42 left in the game.
“I was joking with Connor after Jadon’s big run,” Garofano said. “I said, “Do we need to give Jadon the ball to get touchdowns?” Connor looked at me and said, “Just wait.”
McCazzio finished with 173 yards on 17 carries. Martinez carried 10 times for 41 yards and completed 14 of 15 passes for 154 yards. Wesley Chapel scored two touchdowns in the waning moments to make the final score look closer than the game really was, The Eagles wrap up their regular-season schedule with a home game against Lecanto on Friday followed by a Nov. 7 game home contest against Tampa Gaither in a game that had to be pushed back from a scheduled Oct. 11 meeting that was postponed due to Hurricane Milton.
“We did some good things, but there are other things we need to clean up,” Garofano said. “We’ve got a tough game against a good Lecanto team coming up and we need to be sharp for that one.”
