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East Lake Gridders Hitting Stride

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: October 20, 2007

EAST LAKE, Fla. - EAST LAKE, Fla. - Better late than never.

As much of a cliché as it may be, that bromide describes East Lake High School's first six weeks of the football season to a tee.

The Eagles were coming off a solid 7-3 campaign in 2006 and had the added hunger and motivation of being left out of the playoffs.

They had a running back already committed to a Division I, Southeastern Conference school and a handful of others also built for the next level.

They had a ton of confidence in a young quarterback with a rocket arm.

But they had to establish who they were on the field above all else.

That proved to be more difficult than expected.

East Lake got off to a lackluster 1-2 start, with its only win being a shaky-at-best defeat of the still winless St. Petersburg Green Devils. The Eagles offense did not hit double digits at all during that opening span.

Since those first three games though, they have run off three wins in a row with the latest being a 17-7 upset at highly rated Northeast High.

It is deemed an upset because of how the Eagles stumbled off the blocks, not looking like the team many expected.

"We started the season over, in our heads," East Lake Coach Bob Hudson said of his team's mentality following the 23-6 beating they endured at home against rival Tarpon Springs in Week 3. "That was probably the ultimate low for the guys."

The good thing about rock bottom is that 'up' is the only way to go.

With plenty of talent on both sides of the ball, Hudson said, it was primarily too many missed assignments jumbled with untimely turnovers that did the Eagles in earlier.

From those, the offense – led by junior first-year starting quarterback Blake Robles – was not able to control their game plan, rushing the inexperienced signal caller into forcing inadvertent passes or taking sacks.

Hudson and his Eagles stuck to their guns through it all, look to have weathered the early storm and are now beginning to gel.

"He's really grown up a lot since the Tarpon Springs game," Hudson said of Robles. After struggling through three interceptions that Friday, Robles is rapidly gaining confidence, the coach said.

"He's a competitive kid, he's got a lot of talent and every time he touches the ball he wants to score. He was just forcing it a bit too much (early)."

He described Robles as a bit of a Catch-22 right now in that he can't be too upset with him making mistakes because of how hard he is trying to make a play.

Hudson said building cohesion with his offensive line has played an enormous role as well. The line has had to adjust to the skills of pass protection and have now begun giving Robles a few more moments in the pocket to make decisions.

Add to the mix a healthy Micah Powell running the ball more often and East Lake's attack is now starting to look like it is ready to rev up.

Powell – who committed to Vanderbilt in the off-season – has been slowed throughout the first half of the season by nagging shoulder and ankle injuries.

He will also be able to play both sides of the ball more often, which Hudson said gets him more mentally into the game. He said he could notice disappointment and less emotion from Powell because his injuries kept his overall playing time down.

The team could not have chosen a better time to decide to start turning it on either.

Sitting at 4-2 overall and 1-0 in Class 5A District 9 play, East Lake's next three games are divisional with Dunedin being the next in line.

(Go to The Suncoast News href=http://www.suncoastnews.com > Web site to see what happened in last night's game at East Lake.)

"This is a big district game now with Dunedin," Hudson said, given that the Falcons are currently on top with a 2-0 district record. "Whoever wins is in the driver's seat."

With the offense now giving a stout Eagle defense some time to breathe between series, the time is right for East Lake to live up to expectation.

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