By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.
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As time wound down on its third game in as many days, it would have made sense for the Weeki Wachee flag football team to have nothing left in the tank.
The Hornets had spent most of Wednesday night’s matchup with Springstead at Booster Stadium trailing and struggling to reach the end zone.
Yet a frenetic final three minutes began with them down 6-0 and ended with Arianna Hessler catching a touchdown pass from Karly Pasmore from about four yards out as time expired, completing a stunning comeback for a 12-6 victory.
“Great, feeling amazing,” said Hessler, still catching her breath after the emotional postgame celebration. “We knew (the play) was happening before I came there. … I just knew it was wide open, just run my route.”
“… Stick together as a team and not give up, even though we were losing at first, but don’t give up. And just do your play. Do your position. Keep playing your position.”
Weeki Wachee, having started the week 2-3, suddenly sits at 5-3. The Hornets won at Central 25-0 on Monday and beat The Villages 34-7 on Tuesday.
“It’s crazy. I’m having so much fun with this group of girls. They’re a special group,” Weeki Wachee head coach Billy Hughes said. “Every day they all come to practice, they want to stay after, they want to stay after and work on their routes and catching. Even our punter wants to stay after.”
“From top to the bottom it’s a successful group of 16-18-year-old girls and they’re working hard. So, I’m extremely proud of them.”
Offense was not easy to come by in this one for either side. Not until the final play of the first quarter did anyone get on the scoreboard, when J’Ziyah Munford found Tija Holland wide open in the end zone for about a 15-yard touchdown. Danielle Wertin managed to pull the flag of Munford, who came in with 295 rushing yards, to thwart the extra-point attempt.
Springstead got inside Hornets territory in its next two possessions, but one was ended on a fourth-down sack by Wertin and the next on an interception by Hessler.
Early in the fourth quarter, Weeki Wachee forced another turnover on downs when the Eagles went for it in their own territory. Starting at the Springstead 30-yard line, the Hornets went down and scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass by Pasmore over the middle to Delanie Evans, who just barely crossed the goal line.
Lianna Martinez made a big stop snatching the flag of Pasmore as she dropped back to pass on the point-after try.
That left it 6-6 with 2:53 to play.
Two plays and one minute off the clock later, Hessler recorded her second interception, this one giving her team a chance to win in regulation starting at the Springstead 30 with 1:52 remaining.
“Just saw it and went for it,” Hessler said of the pick.
Despite the dwindling time, the Hornets methodically worked their way down the short field, running eight plays and converting two fourth downs. Ionnah Rock had four receptions on the drive, the last bringing the ball down to about the 4-yard line with only five seconds left. Hughes called a timeout to set up the final play, which ended up being a throw over the middle into the end zone to Hessler. It was her only reception in the game.
“I’m extremely proud of them. They’ve been working hard all season long,” Hughes said. “We’re a young team.”
“We’ve lost a lot from the past, from last season. So just watching them get this win, we started off 0-2 in the season and they’ve kept getting better and better and better. It’s always good to beat a county rival like this. Hats off to Springstead, great coaching staff, great girls in that program. A lot of these girls are friends with those girls. They play in outside leagues together. So, there’s always a little more juice I guess.”
Hughes credited his assistant coach for scripting the last scoring play.
“It’s just what Coach (Stephen) Scire called, him and I spoke before the game, we always have a good game plan coming in,” Hughes said. “The girls were really dialed in. So, we saw what they were giving us, and we tried to give our best athletes an opportunity to be successful.”
The Eagles, who started the season 4-0 before a double overtime loss to Hernando on March 5, did get interceptions from Brooke Smith and De’Aijah Tullis.
“I think we played really, really well. Couple of mistakes late in the game cost us,” Springstead head coach Andrew Sitar said. “A mistake in the beginning of the game caused us an issue. We were in scoring position twice, we didn’t convert. Kept them in the game, and then the pick at the end of the game gave them an advantage with a short field
to score.”
“… Any time we lose a game we’re always going to go ahead, go back and look at the film. See where we can make some adjustments. Weeki played us well tonight, got to give them that. But we’re going to make our adjustments. If we need to make some personnel changes, we will, and we’ll keep pushing forward through the season.”
