Sharks Can’t Hold Lead, Drop Second Straight

By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.
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BROOKSVILLE – For the first quarter of Friday’s game against Palatka, it appeared Nature Coast would rebound nicely from last week’s shocking last-second loss to Hudson.

But the Sharks couldn’t hold on to a 12-0 lead, fell behind right before halftime and could never recover in a 34-26 defeat to the visiting Panthers.

“That’s a damn good football team that we played tonight,” Nature Coast head coach Rob Kazmier said. “We knew that coming in watching them on film. They lost to a very, very good St. Augustine. But they’ve played some decent teams and gotten wins. They came in 3-1, same as us.

“We didn’t execute a lot of certain plays that we could look back at and say that was probably when we gave them some momentum, we cost ourselves points, whatever it might be.”

The Sharks (3-2) got off to a fast start on their first two drives. LJ Elwin ran two into the end zone, the first time from 12 yards out and the second on a 3-yard run. However, a failed 2-point attempt and a missed extra point left it 12-0 with 1:18 in the first quarter.

The game turned midway through the second quarter. KJ Wright scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to get the Panthers (4-1) on the board with 4;49 left in the half. Then as the clock wound down to intermission, Wright caught a 34-yard pass from Tommy Offord for a score to put Palatka ahead 14-12.

That was the start of 34 unanswered points by the visitors. On the third play from scrimmage in the second half, Lawrence Evans burst though the line for a 46-yard score.

That was followed by back-to-back touchdown runs from Justin Fells, one from 2 yards out. The Sharks fumbled away the ensuing kickoff and two plays later Fells struck again for 33 yards. By the 4:14 mark of the third quarter, Palatka had built a 34-12 edge.

“We thought we had an advantage in the run game with their D-line and we did at first. So, we were able to pound the ball on them,” Kazmier said. “We scored twice early and then we missed both (extra points) somehow. But then they had nine guys in the box, they were cranking down their ends, bringing their ’bakers up off the edge and they were just trying to clog up everything. And then they had speed, if we tried to go outside, they had enough speed to shut that stuff down.

“The passing game just wasn’t consistent as I’d like it to be. Jackson (Hoyt) did make some good throws, and he got some yards with his feet at times that were great decisions for him. But they were good. They had answers for what we were doing and then we didn’t have answers to respond back.”

Nature Coast did score twice in the fourth quarter, on Timothy Gaynor’s 1-yard run and with Xavier McCullough returning a blocked punt by Brayden Hogan for a touchdown. Elwin tacked on a 2-point conversion to make it a one-score game with 2:27 remaining. But the Panthers were able to run out the clock to finish off the win.

Palatka had to overcome an astounding 18 penalties for 105 yards, as well as an interception by Elian Vidal and a lost fumble to go along with the blocked punt. The Panthers made up for that by rushing for 296 yards, led by Fells with 113 yards on 18 carries and Evans with 12 rushes for 98 yards.

As for the Sharks, they rushed for 225 yards and were led by Hoyt, who compiled 75 yards on 11 runs, and Harvin’s 70 yards on nine rushes. However, they only completed three pass attempts for 60 yards.

“The muffed kickoff return that led directly to a touchdown for them; we dropped a slant that would have been a walk-in touchdown. Jackson hit him in stride,” Kazmier said. “Those self-destructive mistakes cost us again. And we can’t kick field goals all of sudden and we didn’t get the conversions when we needed them. It’s little things. It’s nothing different than we did last year. We’re just not as tough as those guys were last year and we’re young. Right now, we’ve got seven seniors.

“… We’ve got to toughen up and hunker down, and we’ve got to get back to winning. We went toe-to-toe with a great team tonight. Their athletes were fantastic. They had some big athletes that could run. It was a good test. We knew it would be. We get back to another district game with Anclote and we’ve got Springstead, so we’ve got to
respond.”