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St. Pete Stymies Dunedin

GREEN DEVILS 20, FALCONS 10

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: November 21, 2008

DUNEDIN - An oblong pigskin can bounce in some funny ways, and, unfortunately for Dunedin, the ball skipped away from its grip far too often Friday night.

St. Pete (9-2) took advantage of four, second-half Dunedin turnovers to score 20 unanswered points and beat the Falcons on the road, 20-10.

The chilly, finger-numbing night air could be partly responsibly for the 11 fumbles the two teams combined for, but it was St. Pete who fell on the majority. Dunedin (8-3) fumbled seven times and lost possession on four – all during its devastating second half. St. Pete put four balls to the turf and lost two – all in the first half.

The night looked to be swinging Dunedin's way after two quarters. The Falcons entered halftime up 10-3, but those points would be prove to be the last scored for Dunedin.

Ryan Singer scored the lone Falcons touchdown on a 2-yard run with 5 minutes and 15 second remaining in the second quarter to put Dunedin on top 10-0. Kicker T.J. Day was responsible for the game's first points, booting a 31-yard field goal early in the second period.

Even while allowing St. Pete to march into the red zone to open the second half, momentum appeared to still be with Dunedin. Austin Williams picked off Chris Winiecki's pass on St. Pete's 13th play of the drive and returned it 61 yards to the Green Devils 30.

That, though, was when the wheels started to fall off for Dunedin.

Four plays into their first drive of the half, the Green Devils returned the favor. Quarterback Ryan Singer fumbled on a sack that allowed St. Pete's Willie Culver to scoop up the ball and rumble 43 yards to the Dunedin 16.

St. Pete tied the game 10-10 on Malik Wilson's 10-yard run. The junior running back accounted for 75 percent of the Green Devils' total offensive yardage – 57 rushing and 57 receiving.

All four of the Falcons second-half possessions ended with turnovers due to fumbles and St. Pete scored on each other than the last, which occurred when time expired.

Mostly because of the drive-killing fumbles, St. Pete limited Dunedin to only 96 yards of total offense. The bread-and-butter running attack was held to 48 yards.

After a 34-yard Devon Papandrew field goal with 4:50 left, Dunedin coughed up the ball again and St. Pete iced the game. Wilson went in for his second scoring run of the night on a hard-fought 20 yard effort.

The Green Devils advance to play at District 5A-10 rival Largo next Friday.

SCORING:

St. Pete; 0; 3; 0; 17; - 20
Dunedin; 0; 10; 0; 0; - 10

DUN - Day 31-yard field goal – 2nd Quarter
SP - Singer 2-yard run (Day kick) – 2nd Quarter
DUN - Papandrew 26-yard field goal – 2nd Quarter
SP - Wilson 10-yard run (Papandrew kick) – 4th Quarter
SP - Papandrew 34-yard field goal – 4th Quarter
SP - Wilson 20-yard run (Papandrew kick) – 4th Quarter

TEAM STATS:

---------------SP---------DUN
First Downs-----9-----9
Atts./Rushing Yds.-----44-95-----36-48
Comp./Pass Atts./Int.-----1-4-1-----3-5-0
Passing Yds. -----57-----48
Total Offense-----152-----96
Fumbles/Lost-----4-2-----7-4
Punts/Avg.-----2-36.5-----3-41.3
Penalties-----4-60-----4-25

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:

RUSHING
SP – Wilson (13-57, 2 TD), Murph (9-37), Lewis (9-25), Sams (10-24).
DUN – Bellamy (23-54), Howard (4-15).

PASSING
SP – Winiecki (1-4 for 57, INT).
DUN – Singer (3-5 for 48).

RECEIVING
SP – Wilson (1-57).
DUN – Morris (1-20), Sunday (1-16), Bellamy (1-12).

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com

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