Sebring surges to victory

With the pocket collapsing again, time melting off the clock, quarterback Matt Grubb took a quick two-step drop, looked left and found a streaking Devin Clarke over the middle.

Ballgame, mercifully.

Grubb's 47-yard TD pass to Clarke with 5:23 left proved to be the game winner as Sebring slugged out an ugly 12-8 win over Auburndale on Friday night at cavernous Bruce Canova Stadium.

"That was a good football team that we played," Sebring coach Jared Hamlin said. "They've got a lot of athletes, a lot of playmakers, a lot of speed. I knew it was going to be tough."

Sebring, which improved to 5-3 (3-2 in Class 3A-District 9) with two regular-season games remaining, didn't close out the win until the final seconds. After failing to run out the clock, Grubb pinned a pooch kick deep in Auburndale territory, forcing the Bloodhounds to go 83 yards for the go-ahead score with 42 seconds left.

Despite completing its first pass of the game on the ensuing drive, Auburndale, playing with no timeouts, could only make it to the 40. When the final horn sounded, the Sebring players and coaches threw up their hands in jubilation, reveling in another hard-fought victory, their second in a row.

"I'm very proud of the way we fought," Hamlin said, "and it was great that we found a way to win."

Under duress most of the night - and certainly not helped by his receiving corps, which dropped several balls - Grubb finished just 6 of 21 for 99 yards. But he also threw two touchdowns - both 30-plus yards - leading a sputtering Sebring offense that desperately needed a jolt.

"It's just something you have to deal with as a quarterback," Grubb said of the lack of protection in the pocket (he was sacked three times), "but they came through when it mattered most."

As did he.

After Auburndale took its first lead of the game on a long touchdown run to end the third quarter, Sebring faced a fourth-and-7 from the Bloodhounds 47-yard line with 5:57 left in the game.

The speedy Clarke, who, despite an ankle injury, was still a few steps quicker than any Auburndale defender, lined up in the slot. He ran a curl route, stopping in the middle of the field, expecting to be met by a linebacker.

Not there. And with a burst, Clarke shot through the secondary and took off down the right sideline.

"We tried to move Bubba around and let him make a play," Hamlin said of Clarke, who made the most of his three catches, turning two into touchdowns and finishing with 80 yards. "We wanted to give him a chance to make a play in the open field."

Said Grubb: "It feels good to be able to drive the team down after all the problems on offense previously."

The problems - poor blocking, inconsistent rushing attack, dropped passes - have long persisted for the Blue Streaks. This time, however, they were able to overcome their shortcomings.

Splitting carries in a crowded backfield, Damion Thompson rushed for 95 yards on 19 carries. It was the sophomore Thompson - not senior tailback Daniel Burnett - who got the bulk of the carries down the stretch, when the Auburndale defenders swarmed to the ball to strip it from his grasp.

They were successful in that pursuit in the third quarter, when Thompson was met by a host of defenders and lost the ball. Receiver Michael Grimes picked up the ball and tried to gain more yardage, but he, too, was stripped.

"To be honest with you," Hamlin said, "after that fumble, I wanted to show Damion that we had a lot of confidence in him and we wanted to let him take it home."

And he did. With Burnett on the sideline nursing a high ankle sprain, Thompson, now with two hands on the ball, charged ahead and gained the tough yards, enabling the Blue Streaks to make their fourth-quarter comeback.

"He ran the ball really hard Friday night," Grubb said of Thompson, who was making just his second varsity start. "He's going to be a good running back."

Sebring capitalized on the first Auburndale turnover in the first quarter, when on fourth-and-5, Grubb found Clarke on the outside for a 30-yard touchdown, giving the Blue Streaks a 6-0 lead when the two-point conversion attempt failed.

The Blue Streaks forced two more Auburndale turnovers in the first half, and essentially shut down every component of the Bloodhounds' offense - except for quarterback Jamiah Crawford.

Crawford finished with 176 yards rushing on 20 carries, none bigger than his 78-yard dash with 52 seconds remaining in the third quarter that gave Auburndale an 8-6 lead, after it converted a bizarre two-point attempt.

"They caught us," Hamlin said, who added that his defense wasn't prepared to defend the draw on the long touchdown run. "We guessed wrong."

But after Grubb's fourth-quarter heroics, it was rendered a mere footnote.

Sebring will travel to play Tenoroc in the district finale next week, before returning home to host county rival Avon Park on Nov. 13.

"Those are two big wins," Hamlin said, "and was it a shot of confidence? It should be. It's a win."