SPORTS & LEISURE
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Local Schedule
Football
Today’s Games
Tavares at Eustis, 7 p.m.
Ocala West Port at Umatilla, 7
p.m.
First Academy of Leesburg at
Ocala Christian, 7 p.m.
Mount Dora Bible at Landmark
Christian, 7 p.m.
The Villages at Cross City Dixie
County, 7:30 p.m.
Leesburg at Brooksville Nature
Coast, 7:30 p.m.
East Ridge at Winter Garden West
Orange, 7:30 p.m.
Orlando Olympia at South Lake,
7:30 p.m.
South Sumter at Ocala Trinity
Catholic, 7:30 p.m.
Wildwood at Lecanto, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 1, 2010
South Lake
outscored in national The day
our local
television debut landscape
Frank
Jolley
Sports
Columnist
changed
H
The schedules listed are all
that have been received by
the Daily Commercial from
area schools. To have your
games listed, please email
schedules to [email protected] or fax them
at 352-365-1951.
PREPS
Prep Volleyball
GROVELAND — South Lake
picked up a 3-0 win against
Winter Garden West Orange
on Tuesday.
Game scores were 25-5, 2522, 25-15.
Erika Gaul paced South
Lake with 14 kills and seven
digs. Tatiana Munoz added
12 kills and eight digs.
For Winter Garden West
Orange, Hannah Jones had
14 assists.
On Monday, the Eagles
earned a 3-2 win against
Leesburg.
Game scores were 25-19,
23-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-11.
Gaul contributed 21 kills,
11 blocks and eight digs in
the win, and Munoz had 14
kills, 11 digs, three blocks
and two service aces.
Leesburg,
however,
rebounded Tuesday with a
win against Ocala Lake
Weir.
Ashlii Falconer led the
Yellow Jackets with 11 kills
and 17 digs, while Troi Lake
had 15 digs and seven kills.
Nadia Gooden added 11
assists.
On Monday, Falconer had
23 digs, 17 kills and two
block, and Lake had 20 digs
and 16 kills.
South Lake beats
East Ridge
Erika Gaul turned in 15
kills, 11 digs, four aces
and seven blocks to lead
South Lake to a 3-0 win
over East Ridge on Sept.
23.
The winners took control
with 26-24, 25-18 and 25-23
scores.
Emily Baty had three
aces, 10 kills and seven digs.
For East Ridge, Falyn
Skinner finished with eight
kills and five aces.
College
Volleyball
PALATKA — Lake-Sumter
Community College dropped
a 3-1 decision against St.
Johns River Community
College.
Game scores were 25-27,
26-28, 26-24, 25-27.
Jeassica McGregor had
seven digs, 32 assists, and
four service aces for the
Lakers.
Paola Rojas had 19 digs
and one service ace, while
Stephanie Hebert added 10
digs.
Kirstern Germeroth had 16
digs and nine kills.
Bryeonna Creech had five
digs and 12 kills, and Allorie
Sanders contributed 15 digs,
nine kills, two blocks and
three service aces.
Shelby Spring chipped in
with eight kills and two
blocks, and Victoria Parks
had six kills and three
blocks.
KERI RASMUSSEN-BEKIER / SOUTH LAKE PRESS
South Lake High School’s Steel Stewart gets past Apopka’s Deon Lowman, right, on Thursday in Apopka.
APOPKA’S LIGHTNING-QUICK BACKS
ACCOUNT FOR 50 -14 RUNAWAY WIN
FRANK JOLLEY
Staff Writer
APOPKA — The South Lake High
School football team gave Apopka all
it could handle during the Sept. 23
nationally televised game at Roger
Williams Field.
For 24 minutes.
In the second half, however, the
Blue Darters found an extra gear and
sped away from the Eagles with a 28point outburst in the third quarter
and cruised to a 50-14 victory.
“Our second half was the worst half
of football I’ve seen since I came to
South Lake 10 years ago,” South Lake
coach Walter Banks said. “And it wasn’t just the kids. We just didn’t come
back out with the same intensity as
we started the game with and you
can’t expect to beat a team like
Apopka without a complete effort.”
Apopka (3-1), still smarting from a
14-13 loss to Orlando Edgewater last
week, nursed a 15-14 lead into the
locker room at halftime, but wasted
little time putting the game away in
the third quarter. The Blue Darters
ran nine offensive plays in the period
and scored on four of them, including
two touchdowns apiece from Tom
Smith and Qua Barnes.
“We did a much better job of blocking and executing in the second
half,” Apopka coach Rick Darlington
said. “We didn’t change anything up
or try to be fancy. That’s not our
offense. It simply came down to
blocking better and giving our run-
KERI RASMUSSEN-BEKIER / SOUTH LAKE PRESS
Steele Stewart eludes Lawrence Taylor, left.
ning backs an opportunity to find
some holes.”
The Blue Darters ran their singlewing offense to perfection in the
third quarter, using misdirection and
quick handoffs to confuse the Eagles.
Barnes led Apopka’s running attack
with 145 yards on 14 carries and three
touchdowns. Keon Brooks had 129
yards on 11 carries and Smith added
104 yards on 12 carries.
South Lake got off to a quick start
on its opening play when quarterback
Kris White connected with Nick
Waisome on a 95-yard touchdown
pass. Late in the second quarter, the
pair hooked again on a 75 yard scoring play.
The Eagles (2-2) totalled 237 yards
of offense in the first half, with White
and Waisome’s two pass plays
accounting for 170 yards.
For the game, White competed 5 of
15 passes for 182 yards. Running back
Steel Stewart, who entered the game
averaging more than 150 yards rushing per game, managed only 85 on 20
carries.
SPORTS CALENDAR
October 2
1st Annual Golf
Tournament and Golf Cart
Poker Run: Saturday, by
South Lake Elks Lodge 1848,
held at Bella Collina Golf
Course. Fee per player is
$70. Registration begins at
7:30 a.m., putting contest at
8 a.m. and a shotgun start 9
a.m. Contact Denise at 2557545 or the Elks Lodge at
394-3918 for information.
October 7
Fit-n-fun program: 4:30 to
5:30 p.m., Tuesday to
Thursday, Minneola
Trailhead Park in Minneola.
Certified trainer Frank
Girardi, Tuesdays and
Thursdays, for ages 8 to 12
years. Simple playground
games, agility and conditioning drills. Minneola residents, $25; non-residents,
$35. Contact Frank Girardi at
987-6740 for information or
to register.
Ongoing
Senior Men’s Softball
League: Seeking experienced players ages 55-plus
for Monday and Thursday
morning league. Call 2431205.
City of Minneola: Open
gym, 7:45-9 a.m., ThursdayFriday. Call 394-3598 ext.
229.
Instructor Jana McNally:
Zumba, 9:30 a.m., Monday, 6
p.m. and 7:15 p.m., Monday,
7:15 p.m., Wednesday,
Minneola Recreation Center.
Call 394-3598 ext. 227.
Sundays
Mean Street Pro Wrestling
Club: 12 p.m. Call 404-2235.
Tuesdays
Magic seniors 80-plus
team: 9-10:30 a.m.,
Minneola City Hall gym. Call
241-0475.
Green Valley Country Club
9 hole ladies golf: 12 p.m.
Call Barb at 404-6401 or
Rosie at (407) 469-4550.
Thursdays
Clermont Senior Men’s
Golf League: 9 a.m.,
Sanctuary Ridge. Call 3940195 or (407) 973-6138.
Adult pickup coed volleyball program: 6:30-9:30 p.m.,
city of Minneola gym. Cost
is $2 per player.
To update, delete or add items
in this column, e-mail kristingatlin@dailycommercial or fax
to 394-8001.
igh School football
in Lake and Sumter
counties may never
be same after last week.
When the South Lake
High School football team
sprinted onto Apopka’s
Roger Williams Field with a
national television audience watching on ESPN2,
the prep landscape in our
area was forever changed.
Even though South Lake
fell to the Blue Darters 5014, Lake and Sumter counties are no longer lazy
backwaters to the north
and west of Orlando.
We have an identity.
Instead of Groveland
being about 25 miles west
of Orlando, people now
know that Orlando is 25
miles east of Groveland.
And Leesburg, Mount Dora,
Clermont and other Lakeand Sumter-County cities
are benchmark locations,
rather than cursory dots on
a map.
What is Gainesville without the University of
Florida and the attention
brought by it’s nationally
ranked football team?
A suburb of Ocala?
With the game beamed
into as many as 99 million
homes, we’re no longer
ugly stepchildren to our
southern neighbors.
If just one college football coach sat up in his
recliner after watching the
game and said to himself,
“You know, they play some
pretty good football in
Lake County,” we’re on the
national football radar.
The game was an opportunity of a lifetime for our
community.
It was a chance to beat
one of the most revered
programs in Florida with
the entire nation watching.
Of course, that didn’t happen, but football fans in
Texas, California, and
everywhere else saw that
Lake County produces football talent.
And, believe me, the
football folks in Apopka
knew it. They went into
the locker room at halftime, nursing a one-point
lead, and were forced to
find another gear if they
hoped to put the Eagles
away.
Unfortunately for South
Lake, the Blue Darters
found one, blitzing the
Eagles with an impressive
28-point outburst in the
third quarter.
But the Eagles were well
represented. According to
South Lake athletic directors Stephanie Tibbetts and
Sammy Skinner, the school
sent four spirit buses —
filled with about 200 students — to the game, and
countless other fans who
made the rush-hour trek
into west Orange County.
Apopka athletic director
Russell Wambles wanted a
capacity crowd for the
game. He didn’t quite get
that, but an estimated
4,000 fans were on hand
for the contest, a
respectable showing for a
Thursday evening game.
Wambles surmised that
ESPN2 would be more likely to televise more area
games if its camera shots
were filled with supportive
and loud fans.
See JOLLEY, B7