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Suncoast Pinellas News

Cougars Run Over Clearwater

Countryside 42 Clearwater 24

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: October 26, 2007

CLEARWATER - CLEARWATER - It was Senior Night at the Clearwater High School football stadium Friday evening before their Class 5A-District 9 match up with cross-town rival Countryside.

Soon after the procession of students and parents came to a close, there was little for the home crowd to cheer about as Countryside's offense dominated all facets of the game.

The Cougars amazingly scored on six of their eight offensive possessions. And that's including their last three play "drive" at the end of a 42-24 drumming to run out the clock.

The only full possession that saw them fail to hit the end zone was in the waning moments of the first quarter that actually gave the Tornadoes their only lead of the game. Countryside went 3-and-out and punter Pete Kontodiakos fumbled a shaky snap, recovering the ball only to be taken down behind the goal line for a safety. Clearwater took the early 9-7 lead.

Largely behind the running of Danny Sanford, Clearwater nearly took advantage of immediately getting the ball back following the safety. Pushing the Countryside defense back to their own 12-yard line, Clearwater went for it on fourth-and-three only to watch fullback Michael Holmes fall two yards shy of the first.

From that moment on, it was all Cougars, all night. Efficiency was the name of the game.

While scoring nearly at will as a unit, Countryside running back Maurice Threatts slashed and sped his way to 188 yards on 19 carries with three touchdowns.

The Cougars gained 287 yards with four scores on the ground and recorded 417 yards of total offense. They displayed flash in scoring quickly with the big play as well as being able to control the clock for drives as long as 13 plays at times.

The hands down high-profile player on the field was assuredly Clearwater quarterback and multi-sport athlete Luke Loucks, who has verbally committed to play basketball at Florida State next fall.

Be that as it may, young Countryside quarterback Jimbo Chmelik managed to outshine the superstar on this night. The sophomore went a perfect 10-for-10 with 126 yards passing and a score.

Receivers Martavious Jones and Richard Shockley - two of Chmelik's favorite targets this season - combined for seven of those ten receptions with a combined 129 yards. (Chmelik had two completions to Ryan Eppes for a combined negative five yards, explaining how Jones and Shockley could both total more receiving yards than the quarterback totaled.)

"Jimbo played well. Our offensive line had trouble early in the year, but we've really come together in the last four weeks," Countryside coach John Davis said of his signal caller.

Those aforementioned last four weeks have also seen the Cougars rip off wins each of those Fridays, following the Oct. 20 beating they took at Dunedin.

Now, Countryside sits at 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the 5A-9 standings.

With Palm Harbor University's loss to East Lake tonight, Dunedin effectively won the district title outright. Dunedin (3-0 in district play) had a bye this week, but the only two teams that could tie their final 5A-9 record are Countryside and East Lake, whom are both 2-1. Both of those two schools have already lost to Dunedin, giving the Falcons the tiebreakers.

The Cougar and East Lake victories set up a win-or-stay-home battle between the two programs at Countryside next Friday. The winner automatically nabs the second and final district playoff spot. The loser knows they will be playing their following and last game of the season in vain.

"We've got to prepare," Jones said at mid-field following Friday's game. "We did a heck of a job this week of focusing the team to beat a good Clearwater team to get us in that situation where we wanted to be in."

"We're going to work this weekend and have a great week of practice."

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