Central Heat Cools South

SEBRING -- The game was all but over at halftime, but the memories from the ninth annual South-Central Florida All-Star Football Classic will last much longer for the players involved.

The Central team -- made up of seniors from Avon Park, Bartow, Fort Meade, Haines City, Hardee, Lake Placid, Lake Wales, Okeechobee and Sebring -- went up by four touchdowns at the half and cruised to a 42-6 victory over the South squad in a game filled with turnovers, penalties, and -- perhaps most of all -- smiles.

"Our big concept from day one was 'Hey fellas, you might have been enemies before, but we're all on the same team this weekend,' " said Lake Placid coach Tim Grant, who led the Central squad. "But this was still our home turf, and we wanted to protect it."

The Central team did just that, getting touchdowns from Sebring's Sam Robinson and T.J. Williams and holding the South team's stars -- made up of seniors from Charlotte, DeSoto, LaBelle, Lemon Bay, Moore Haven, North Port and Port Charlotte -- to less than 70 yards of offense at the half.

Sebring's Isaac Fernandez, one of seven Blue Streaks on the field, said the win was satisfying in more ways than one.

"Guys from DeSoto always run their mouths a bit, so it was nice to quiet them down some," said Fernandez, a 3.0 student and two-year letterman at SHS. "I knew coming out that this would be my last high school game, and it was fun to end it with all these stars."

It was also the final game high school game for Lake Placid senior Johnathan Simons, one of four Green Dragons who played in the Sebring Firemen's annual showcase. He said, if anything, the game proved that the level of athleticism in this part of the state deserves to be taken notice of.

"This shows all the talent we have in the area," Simons said. "Getting all these guys together makes the game a lot different than what we've seen all year."

Josh Hickey, who along with Simons, Rashaad Brown and Albert Calderon, also represented LP, said the biggest difference from a regular-season game and an All-Star game is the speed.
"There's a lot of natural talent out there," he said. "You really just had to do your job and make plays."

The Central squad did just that from the very beginning, turning a fumble in their own red zone into a defensive stand and scoring first on a quarterback keeper for 58 yards by Haines City quarterback Darrel Sirmons.

After a Central punt and fumble recovery, the white-jerseyed team scored again when Sirmons found Robinson down the right sideline and the Sebring wideout did the rest, rumbling 15 yards for the score.

After another blocked punt by defensive MVP and Sebring senior Kyle Long, Central recovered the ball in the end zone for a 21-0 lead with 14:32 left in the second quarter. They'd score again when Williams rumbled nine yards to the right side for a 28-0 lead at the half.

"These guys are scary," Grant said. "We put things together in four days, and you can see that they understood a lot.

"Almost any play you got you can break as soon as you make the call because you have the athletes."

South got on the board with 1:58 left in the third when North Port's Martae Taylor ran one 49 yards up the middle to make it 28-6. But Central would respond, scoring twice more on short runs by Hardee's Jayquan Gandy and Haines City's Akeem Jones.

"We put up points real quick," Grant said. "And that made it real easy for me."

NOTE: Local participants also included: From Avon Park: Casey McKibben, Willie English, Chris Bower and Fred Mixon; from Sebring: Ty Graham, Brannen Dorman and Ronnie Brassell; from Hardee: Jordan Grimsley, Olmel Virgile and Wade Mahoney.