LEESBURG - Blame it on the time of year. After all, it is October and Halloween season.
Or how about that full moon?
However one wishes to describe it, there certainly was a Jekyll-and-Hyde act on display at Friday's Brooksville Nature Coast-Leesburg game. And it was Nature Coast that took better advantage of it.
After a lackluster first half, the Sharks turned it on quickly in the second to knock off the Yellow Jackets 23-18.
Tevin Drake proved to be the ultimate difference for Nature Coast. Limited to 32 yards on seven carries in the first half, the 6-foot, 200-pound senior sliced through the Leesburg defense for 160 yards and two touchdowns in the second, totalling 192 yards rushing on 24 attempts.
"We just looked horrible in the first half," said Nature Coast coach Mark Lee. "I don't know what it is. We just challenged them (at halftime), and they played the way in the second half the way they should have been playing all game."
First half: Nature Coast totaled 34 yards in offense and trailed 6-0, losing a fumble and having a punt blocked. Second half: The Sharks gained 209 yards, scored three touchdowns and added a field goal.
For Leesburg, the game could easily be described as missed opportunities.
"They're good," Yellow Jackets' coach Charles Nassar said of Nature Coast. "You can't leave all the points on the field we left in the first half. We didn't expect that lead to stand up."
Still, it was Leesburg that struck first when Trey McKinney got through the line and blocked Nature Coast's Richard Hart's punt attempt, recovering it and taking it in for the score. The extra point was blocked, but the Jackets were up 6-0.
It remained that way until the Sharks attitude adjustment at halftime, Hyde substituting for Jekyll (or vice versa). On Leesburg's second play of the the second half, Luther McDowell fumbled on the exchange with quarterback Efrain Negron and Nature Coast recovered. It took the Sharks three plays to travel the 21 yards, Drake going the final eight for the score and a 7-6 lead.
They followed that with a 19-yard field goal by Tyler Callaghan to increase their lead to 10-6 and, after a Leesburg three-and-out, the Sharks constructed a 12-play, 77-yard drive culminated by a 10-yard scoring pass from C.J. Baker to Anthony Carlucci.
That made it 16-6 early in the fourth. Leesburg, which failed to get a second-half first down until nearly the midpoint of the fourth quarter, got two late TDs from Jalen Dozier, one on a 24-yard sweep and another on an 11-yard scramble.
"We didn't block anybody," Nassar said. "Finally in the fourth quarter we got some blocks."
But it was too late. Dozier's second score came after Drake put the game away for the Sharks with a 44-yard cutback score that made it 23-12. Dozier's final TD came with just 19.8 seconds to go.
The game had major implications in District 3A-6. Nature Coast, the pre-season favorite, is 4-1 overall, 2-1 in the district. Leesburg is 3-2 overall, 1-1 in the district.
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C.J. Risak Staff writer
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