'I'm excited about the pass game': Haines City holds off Kathleen's rally in scrimmage
Haines City head football coach Pat Herrington saw some positive aspects in a scrimmage Friday night at Kathleen High School. Kathleen head football coach Saul Speights also saw some aspects his team can build off.
That’s what happens when a scrimmage comes down to one possession. But Kathleen ran out of timeouts in the end, and Haines City prevailed 34-28 in a spring game.
“I’m excited about the pass game. We’re able to pass the ball way better than we did last year,” Herrington said. “We have a lot of young guys that’s going to come in and contribute. We got a couple of ninth graders that are balling right now. An off-season of the weightroom — get them bigger, get them stronger. It’s going to be nice. I think we had a good mix of run and pass tonight.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Haines City’s first touchdown was a 24-yard touchdown pass from starting quarterback Deonte Fielder to Daniel James with 1:27 to go in the first, giving Haines City a 7-0 lead.
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Kathleen finally got the ball, but Red Devil quarterback Kelin Hendrix threw a pick to Kanai Washington. But Kathleen imposed its defensive will thanks to Chris Everett’s interception. But the Red Devil offense couldn’t do move the ball.
On Haines City’s ensuing offensive possession, James hauled in a 61-yard touchdown reception with 2:20 left in the second from Fielder to make it 14-0 after the extra point.
And as time expired in the second quarter, Fielder threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Kanai Washington to put the Hornets up 20-0 after a failed extra point.
Kathleen in the third quarter finally got back in the ballgame late in the third quarter thanks to a 25-yard touchdown run by Hendrix to make the score 20-7.
Haines City’s Kamari Smith ran in an 85-yard touchdown with 1:23 left in the third to eventually put Haines City up 27-7.
Kathleen then responded with 11:51 to go in the fourth thanks to a Marcus Bankston bringing in a 45-yard touchdown from Hendrix.
A couple of possession stalled, including a Kathleen drive in which Jamal Williams recovered a fumble. This led to Smith running in a 65-yard touchdown with 6:07 left in the game to put the Hornets up 34-14.
Kathleen responded with a 65-yard touchdown run by Rashard Kelly with 5:30 to go in the fourth and a Hendrix 7-yard touchdown run with 1:20 to go in the fourth to put the score at 34-28.
“Second half we threw in a lot of backups and sprinkled some stuff in and it kind showed," Herrington said. "(We) let Kathleen back in the game and made it close. But that’s a good Kathleen team. They’re sneaky. That quarterback is really good. Next season will be my fourth season and we are trending upward.”
Speights said his team battled, too.
“We got a young team,” Speights said.” All of the players that made plays tonight, they're all rising sophomores. Some played last year but some didn’t; but you saw the chemistry we had. … I think we found our identify on offense. Defensively we got to clean some things up. I think we found some tools that will be successful in the fall.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Haines City defeats Kathleen in football scrimmage
