BROOKSVILLE – It would seem odd that a player who rushed for over 400 yards and five touchdowns would be in a position to gain redemption on the game’s final drive.
Yet that’s where Central senior De’Vonta Smith found himself on Saturday late in the fourth quarter. He rushed for 335 yards and four scores in the first half, as the host Bears were running away from Citrus, up 34-7.
Then he fumbled three times in the second half, the Hurricanes scored 27 unanswered points, and somehow the game was tied with 4:54 remaining.
That’s when Smith restored order, returning the ensuing kickoff 25 yards to the Central 49. Five snaps, five runs and 51 yards later, Smith found the end zone from 11 yards out, pushing the Bears back in front in a 41-34 victory.
“I told my team, ‘Hey, you all my bodyguards. If you all block, you all know we’re going to the crib. You all block. That’s all I need.’ And that’s what they gave me,” Smith said. “I ran the ball hard, and we drove down the field and scored.”
Officially, the Bears’ stats had Smith with 24 carries for 425 yards. Already the state’s leader in rushing yards and touchdowns coming in, he’s now at 1,942 and 25 respectively.
Even more impressive are his numbers over the past three games: 1,300 yards and 17 scores. That’s all in Class 5A, District 7 wins.
“He’s averaging over 300 yards a game now and he’s just better than everyone else on the field,” Central head coach Chris Sands said. “You saw the last drive; I’m not going to go away from him because he’s fumbling the ball. He’ll figure it out, and that’s why he’s a leader and the best player in the state.”
In a game delayed from Friday night due to Hurricane Matthew, Smith had already scored by the second play from scrimmage when he dashed 54 yards to the end zone. He added scoring runs of 69 and 51 yards in the first quarter, and a 77-yarder with 2:48 remaining in the half.
The Bears (4-2 overall, 3-1 5A-7) also had an 18-yard touchdown pass from Izzy Zena to Jonathan Allion in the second quarter and stood just one score away from initiating a running clock in the second half.
But in the third quarter, fumbles and penalties once again became critical issues for Central. Three of the Bears’ first four possessions out of halftime ended with them putting the ball on the ground. Sands attributed the sloppiness to the team having little practice time early in the week due to so many players suffering with the flu.
Citrus (2-4 overall, 2-2 5A-7) took advantage of the opportunity, getting a 3-yard touchdown out of Max Martone in the third, then a 5-yard scoring run by Cody Russell two plays into the fourth quarter. A 25-yard touchdown pass from Mitch Barroso to Jared Cleary made it a one-score game, 34-28, with 10:27 left to play.
Later in the fourth, Barroso ran 18 yards to gain a first down on a fake punt, then found Cole Baldner for a 15-yard touchdown as 4:54 remained. Yet Citrus misfired on the ensuing kick and failed to take the lead.
Central followed with the go-ahead scoring drive. With only 2:37 on the clock and no timeouts, the ‘Canes advanced as far as the Central 35 before an interception by Dominique Walker sealed things with 32.7 seconds remaining.
“It’s frustrating, because offensively you watch the last drive we had, we didn’t change anything up. Because we knew it was working, we were just fumbling the ball,” Sands said. “So we just kept with our system. The system always works and it definitely worked on that last drive. De’Vonta is the best player in the state for a reason, and we kept on going to him.”
Holding on to the football has represented the one dark spot in an otherwise spectacular season for Smith. He now has seven lost fumbles on the season, six of them in the last three weeks.
“The one thing we addressed in the offseason, he has to learn to not try to make every play an amazing touchdown play. He tries to break tackles and stay on his feet, and people come from behind and poke the ball,” Sands said. “When he gets hit and wrapped up, he needs to drop. And it’s hard to tell a kid with that much ability to just drop.
“But we’re working on it. He is more frustrated with himself than anyone else is frustrated with him. We’ll address it and he’ll be better next week for sure.”
“They didn’t really change much. It’s just me and my fundamentals, fumbling the ball. We can’t have that, especially when we’re trying to get to a higher level like playoffs,” Smith said. “The yardage and touchdowns, that’s good. But I’ve still got to clean up those fumbles.”
As for the postseason, a place the Bears have not ventured since 2007, they are in prime position to snag the district runner-up spot if they can win out in the district. They are currently tied for second with Crystal River, the opponent they’ll visit this Friday.
“We rolling right now, we’ve got some momentum going into this Crystal River game,” Smith said. “We told Sands after the Nature Coast loss, we won’t have this no more. We got to work. We got to get back to that. We worked too hard over the summer to let our season slip away from us like that.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.