By CHRIS BERNARDT JR.
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LECANTO – Less than two weeks after dropping the county flag football championship game to Weeki Wachee, Nature Coast got a significant measure of redemption on Tuesday night.
Taking on the third-seeded Hornets in the District 2A-8 Tournament semifinals at Lecanto, the second-seeded Sharks got out in front and held on at the end for a 13-7 victory to advance to the district final.
“They had a goal at the beginning of the year to make it to the title game. So we’ve been eyeing that all year, to have that opportunity again. So, they feel really good that they’re accomplishing goals,” Nature Coast head coach Ian Wald said. “They were very disciplined defensively and they were on schedule offensively.”
“… Weeki Wachee is a team that it’s never going to be a blowout. It’s always going to be a dogfight. I think every game of ours has gone down to a score. So, it feels great to get it, but next time it could go the other way. It’s just one of those games.”
The Sharks (12-3) started the season with a 6-0 win over the Hornets (10-5) on Feb. 18, before a 13-8 loss in the county tournament final on March 27. This game began with long drives by both teams. Weeki Wachee got inside the Nature Coast 20-yard line on its first
possession, but Gia Valenti made a leaping interception of a third-down pass into the end zone. The Sharks and Valenti picking off passes would become a reoccurring theme throughout the night.
Nature Coast marched down the field on the ensuing possession which stretched into the second quarter, ending on a 3-yard pass from Madelyn DePetrillo over the middle to Kennedy Rasmussen for a touchdown in what would become the other repeat occurrence of the game. Those two hooked up again on the extra point to make it 7-0.
With just 1:17 left in the half, the Sharks started a drive inside Weeki Wachee territory following a turnover on downs. They got down to the goal line with six seconds to go, and again DePetrillo found Rasmussen in the end zone while rolling to her left, and Nature Coast held a 13-0 advantage at the intermission.
“I feel like we’ve always been connected like that,” Rasmussen said of herself and DePetrillo. “We’ve always had chemistry and she was just playing amazing tonight.”
The Hornets twice stopped the Sharks on fourth-and-goal in the second half, including once on a goal-line stand.
Weeki Wachee finally broke through late in the fourth quarter when Karly Pasmore hit Aaliyah Cox on a 49-yard reception that put the ball just short of the goal line. Pasmore threw a 1-yard touchdown to Joelys Rodriguez on the next play and connected with her again on the extra point to make it a one-score game with just over two minutes to
play.
Nature Coast went three-and-out and the Hornets had one last chance with 34 seconds remaining. But Valenti recorded one more interception, her fourth of the game, to effectively seal it. The Sharks had five interceptions total, with Lainee Tackett snagging the other.
The Sharks moved on to Thursday’s final against top seed Hernando, a team they split two meetings within the regular season, losing 20-7 on March 10 and winning 24-0 in the county tournament on March 27.
Meanwhile, the Hornets will have to wait to see if they finish high enough in the rankings to claim an at-large berth for regionals.
“We started playing Weeki Wachee football in the fourth quarter and I’m really proud of our girls,” Weeki Wachee head coach Billy Hughes said. “We got down by 13-0 and we kept battling, battling, facing a lot of adversity. I’m proud of the girls, how they kept fighting and fighting and fighting, and we got a chance at the end. That’s all you
can ask for. So, I’m really proud of the girls.”
“… We just started playing a better game. We came out really sluggish, kind of sleeping a little bit in the first three quarters. We’ve just got to come out and do a faster start.”
