Weeki Wachee Football Caps Spring with Win at Eustis

Coming off the first winning season in program history, the Weeki Wachee High football team did nothing on Friday night to halt that positive momentum.
The Hornets made the trip to Eustis for a spring classic game and came away with a 16-15 exhibition victory.

“Things went well,” Weeki Wachee head coach Justin Bland said. “The defense played well. Keavin Moss, our safety, he had three interceptions tonight. He played well. As far as knowing what we needed to do, being in our spots, defensively, we were where we wanted to be.

“Offensively, we moved the football. Offensive line play was better than what we anticipated coming into the spring. Communication up front, stuff like that, those guys were much better. We had three running backs that moved the football, ran the football really well for us. And we had a couple surprises, some freshmen that caught the football tonight. We’ve got some young guys that just came in and turned heads.

“The biggest thing I think we accomplished, we found our depth that we were needing going into the fall.”

The game was actually not quite as close as the final score makes it appear. The Panthers, who were 1-9 in 2024, scored a late touchdown with JV players going on both sides.

The Hornets did all their scoring in the first half. Levi Steiner kicked a 30-yard field goal to get them on the scoreboard, then Richard Hanshaw threw a pair of touchdown passes. One was a 40-yarder to Connor Boyle and a 10-yard strike to Evan Sareyania.

“Our biggest thing was obviously to go be competitive against a team,” Bland said. “Give it to Eustis, they were athletic. They had a couple of guys that were quick that we kind of had to keep an eye on. By all means they were a good football team.

“Going out, making sure that our first-string guys got what we needed them to get, and then get some young guys in there. Get them some reps, get some film. Just making sure we can create depth going into the fall with some of these younger guys. My big thing was just go to be competitive. It wasn’t so much winning the football game, it was just be competitive. Because we’ve got a young football team this year.”

Weeki Wachee went 7-3 last year, a massive step forward for a program that had never finished at or above .500 in its 12 previous varsity seasons. But it has been a steady progression this decade, from 0-10 to 2-8 to 4-5 from 2021-23.

Bland became head coach last season after being associate head coach the previous two years under Jon Malandrucco, and his squad still has some veteran standouts. Hanshaw, who will be a senior in the fall, threw for 1,287 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2024, in addition to rushing for 404 yards and five touchdowns. Leelan Wright, another senior this coming season, ran for 1,009 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior.

Leading receivers Alex Wilson (26 receptions, 526 yards, 9 TDs) and Michael Schmidt (14 receptions, 261 yards, TDs) are both about to graduate. So are four of the five starting offensive linemen.

On defense, the Hornets will have to overcome losing leading tacklers Brock Rosario (94 tackles) and Eryk Marcuccio (74 tackles), plus Wilson, who tied Moss for a team-high three interceptions. They still have James Nielson, who will be a junior, to lead that side of the ball after pacing the team with 12.5 sacks and 19 tackles for a loss.

“Like I told the kids, just basically in the weight room (over the summer). We’ve got to get stronger,” Bland said. “That’s the biggest area, I think the biggest difference it’s been with us is we’re just a little bit weaker than some of the opponents that we’ve seen. So we’ve got to get in the weight room, got to get stronger, got to get a little bit faster.

“I think that was the big thing we accomplished over the offseason, is we’ve seen a handful of guys, the speed, the times and stuff are dropping, and we’ve seen it correlate tonight on the field. So now we’ve got to get in the weight room and we’ve just got to continue to hammer away and get stronger in there.”