BROOKSVILLE – Two weeks ago, the Hernando High football team was riding high off an impressive victory at Lecanto to open its district schedule.
Now the Leopards find their season in serious peril, following Friday night’s 13-7 homecoming loss to Class 5A, District 7 rival Crystal River.
“Felt like we were maybe a hair flat coming off the first few series. I don’t know if it was homecoming distractions, what, I don’t know. But a little flat early on,” Hernando head coach Bill Vonada said. “Was happy with how we responded, but bottom line is I think physically we played hard but we didn’t make some of the plays that we had the opportunity to make. And they made some plays.”
The Leopards (2-3 overall, 1-2 5A-7) certainly had their chances to do some damage, but were limited to just 65 rushing yards and forced to throw the ball an uncharacteristic 16 times.
Despite going three-and-out on the game’s opening possession, Hernando forced a fumble on the ensuing punt, recovered by Harry Williams, to immediately regain possession inside the territory of the Pirates (2-3 overall, 2-1 5A-7).
But the Leopards would turn the ball over on downs, and no one would score until Jaden Williams ran in a 3-yard touchdown for the visitors with 38.6 seconds left in the first quarter.
Late in the half, Hernando pieced together an 11-play, 58-yard drive, aided by an offside penalty against Crystal River on fourth down from the Pirates’ 14-yard line. The possession was capped by a 7-yard touchdown pass from Scott Bierwiler to David Hale Bronson as 12.5 seconds remained before intermission.
On the first snap of the fourth quarter, Crystal River broke the tie. Logan Wardlow hit Caleb Bray on a slant that went for a 39-yard scoring strike. Collin Roberts blocked the point-after attempt for the Leopards.
Five different possessions saw Hernando run a play on the Pirates’ half of the field with no points to show for it. That included the final drive, when the Leopards reached the Crystal River 40-yard line yet would eventually turn the ball over on downs with 6.1 seconds to play.
“They were flowing very well, and the safety got involved and that was where we had a couple of opportunities and just kind of missed them, taking advantage on play action,” Vonada said. “Obviously we did hit the one touchdown pass and I felt like we moved the ball well in spurts, but not consistently. Certainly not with the consistency that we had the first few weeks. And there’s some things there that we’ve just got to figure out, we’ve got to solve.”
Bronson did have a respectable five receptions for 64 yards in addition to his touchdown. Brad Ellis recorded 15 tackles.
Coupled with the previous week’s district defeat against Citrus, Hernando finds itself in a precarious position moving forward if it hopes to challenge for a postseason berth.
“These last two, we had opportunities and we let them slip away,” Vonada said. “Before we worry about the district, we’ve got to worry about us. We’re not playing horrible by any means. I feel like we’re playing better than we did in the first couple of years (of his tenure). But we’re not executing at a level that we need to, to succeed.
“As coaches, we’ve just got to find a way to fix that. It’s not most of the guys, but it’s one guy a series. … We’ve got to either find a way to make it more important to that one guy or we got to find a new guy.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.