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Brahmans Bully Streaks

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Sebring's Devin Clarke tries to keep his hands on the ball while being guarded by an Okeechobee defender in the third quarter of Friday's game at Firemen's Field.

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: September 21, 2008

SEBRING - Lonnie Pryor has achieved just about everything a high school football player can at this point in his career - rushing titles, school records and all-state honors - but one thing that's eluded the senior tailback is a victory over budding rival Sebring.

Add another to his list of accomplishments.

Pryor picked apart the Blue Streak defense and rushed for a game-high 175 yards on 20 carries and a pair of touchdowns, while Sebring fell behind early and never recovered in a 48-7 rout to the Class 4A Brahmans at Firemen's Field on Friday.

The victory over the Blue Streaks marked the first one for Okeechobee since 2003 and improved the Brahmans to 2-1 on the season, while Sebring drops to 1-2 overall.

Sebring stuck to their game plan of swarming to Pryor, who was stopped on six carries by the Streaks defense for either no gain or negative yardage, but the slippery future Florida State Seminole stayed patient and finally broke free for a huge gain.

Pryor, who torched Avon Park last week for 161 yards and three touchdowns, has made believers out of many of the Streaks, including his counterpart.

"He's the total package when it comes to a running back," said Sebring tailback Daniel Burnett. "He's explosive with his speed and is really agile when he runs. You can't arm-tackle him because he's so big, yet he has the speed to hit the hole or run to the outside.

"I really like him as a person. We have a mutual respect for each other."

Burnett showed Okeechobee some moves of his own, in breaking free for runs of 22, 18 and 14 yards while compiling 119 yards on the ground, but the Streaks all but abandoned the run after they fell behind 26-7 at the half.

"I was seeing the field well and hitting the holes," Burnett said. "But our passing game wasn't on target tonight and Okeechobee was able to load up the middle and clamp down on the holes."

Sebring head coach Jared Hamlin said the game came down to blocking and tackling, and that Okeechobee convincingly won those battles.

"We didn't block well and we didn't tackle well at all," Hamlin said. "When you don't do either of those things well, it's real difficult to win the game."

Okeechobee head coach Chris Branham earned his first victory over his good friend Hamlin and is 1-4 against the Streaks overall.

"First off, Sebring is a really good football team," Branham said. "I thought we had a good game plan against them. In the past, Sebring has always scored most of their points against us on turnovers.

"We made sure we cut down on turnovers and played solid defense against them."

Down 12-0 after Pryor's three-yard touchdown run, Sebring's balance of run and pass seemed to be the right combination, as they moved the ball toward mid-field before a costly fumble was scooped up by Okeechobee's Erick McQueen, who streaked 50 yards into the end zone.

Pryor rambled into the end zone for a 2-point conversion to put the Brahman's up 20-0.

Sebring's woes continued as quarterback Matt Grubb's pass was picked off by TJ Allen, who ran it back 58 yards to the Streaks 2-yard line. Two plays later, Okeechobee quarterback Garrett Madrigal dove in for the score and a commanding 26-0 lead with less than four minutes left in the half.

The Streaks were finally able to get on the board seconds before half time when Grubb connected with Javarius Sanders for a 17-yard touchdown strike.

Grubb, who passed for 305 yards and three touchdowns last week against Pasco, was continually forced out of the pocket by the Okeechobee defense, which had eight sacks on the night, including five from defensive lineman Tony Kibler.

"Tonight, our defense was well-prepared," Branham said. "Our defensive backs wouldn't let their receivers run free and we did a great job of getting to the quarterback.

"I thought Tony played a great game, but we did call him out at half time for missing assignments and he really stepped his game up."

Grubb finished the game 5 for 15 for 70 yards, including a touchdown and an interception.

Pryor broke loose in the second half, as he ran right through the heart of the Sebring defense for a 47-yard touchdown then ran in for the 2-point conversion to regain the touchdown the Brahman's gave up before half time.

Sebring linebacker Kenny Daniels was in the trenches trying to contain the Brahman running back and gave Pryor his due respect, but realizes the mistakes made by his defense led to the rout.

"We missed too many tackles and too many assignments, myself included," Daniels said. "It wasn't a question of motivation for us. Actually, I think that we were too motivated which led to us over-pursuing and going overboard, which led to us giving up big plays.

"I can tell you this. Pryor is a great athlete, but he can be tackled."

Sebring travels to Frostproof to take on the Bulldogs next Friday.

Okeechobee 48, Sebring 7

OKEECHOBEE 6 20 8 14

SEBRING 0 7 0 0

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

Okee - Madrigal 8 pass to Pollard (Alan Najera miss), 8:26

Second Quarter

Okee - Pryor 3 run (Alan Najera miss), 9:51

Okee - McQueen 50 interception (Pryor 2-pt), 6:58

Okee - Madrigal 2 run (Alan Najera miss), 3:46

Okee - Grubb 17 pass to Sanders (Buck Schroeder kick), :5.5

Third Quarter

Okee - Pryor 47 run (Pryor 2-pt), 6:02

Fourth Quarter

Okee - Taggart 7 run (Alan Najera kick), 5:42

Okee - Givens 18 run (Alan Najera kick), 2:13

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING: Sebring; Burnett 20-119, Clarke 4-(-12), Grubb 6-13. Okeechobee; Pryor 20-175-2, McQueen 5-43, Madrigal 5-15-1, Taggart 3-23-1, Givens 1-18-1.

PASSING: Sebring; Grubb 5-15-70-1-1, Clarke 0-1. Okeechobee; Madrigal 6-14-79-1.

RECEIVING: Sebring; Johnstone 1-8, Hankerson 1-33, Sanders 1-17-1, Clarke 1-4, Burnett 1-8. Okeechobee; Jones 1-22, Pollard 2-22-1, Pryor 2-13, Allen 1-22.

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or at choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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