Schools
High School Football: PHUH Suffers 1st Loss of Season
The Hurricanes could only muster one touchdown as Clearwater Central Catholic handed Palm Harbor University High its first loss of the still-young 2011 football season.
CLEARWATER -- Marauders running back Michael Stevenson scored a pair of touchdowns and Clearwater Central Catholic's defense continued its stingy play, handing its first loss of the season 20-7 Monday in Clearwater.
Stevenson ran in from 51 yards out for the first score of the game in the second quarter and he followed that up in the third quarter from four yards out to give the Marauders a 13-0 lead in the third quarter.
From there, it was all CCC's defense, all but stopping star Hurricanes quarterback Billy Pavlock.
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“They played hard, I have to give them that,” Palm Harbor coach Matt Lepain said of CCC. “I think they may have played defense a little better than we thought they could.”
The game, which was a close slugfest through much of the contest, began to change when Lepain believed his players weren't finishing their plays, specifically blocks. Initially, the Hurricanes offensive line would block well but wouldn't continue after the initial hit, Lepain said, which would have given Hurricanes quarterbacks enough of a crack to run for large gains.
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But it was Stevenson who stole the show from his his more heralded teammate Justin Goodloe. Stevenson tried to suggest he heard from a Palm Harbor player that the Hurricanes may have taken CCC, a small private school, for granted.
“They didn't think we were good enough, that we didn't have the talent,” Stevenson said.
It was that theme that Stevenson said CCC coach John Davis used as a motivating factor Friday night.
“He said we had something to prove since we are a small Class 3A private school,” Stevenson said of Davis' rallying cry.
The Marauders did that tonight with a punishing defense. Pavlock's one-yard plunge to pull Palm Harbor within 13-7 early in the fourth was the first touchdown scored on CCC since the second quarter of their first game of the season against East Lake.
Palm Harbor's touchdown was also a turning point in the game, Davis thought, for the Marauders.
“That was a physical drive and when a good team does that to you, you wonder if your players can respond,” Davis said.
CCC did, when Blair Vaughn scored from three yards out for the winning margin.
“I was proud of that [drive],” Davis said.
"This win tells us we are the best team in Pinellas County," Goodloe boasted.