Land O’ Lakes gets pleasant surprise Friday night

Posted Sep 27, 2010 by Eddie Daniels

Updated Sep 27, 2010 at 08:45 PM

The last thing Land O’ Lakes football coaches expected Friday night against Zephyrhills was a sustained passing attack from the Bulldogs.

Now, sustained in this case doesn’t mean it was successful. It’s just the shear frequency of passes Zephyrhills (0-3) attempted. In that 38-7 Land O’ Lakes (3-0) victory, the Gators defense was peppered with 28 pass attempts with only seven completions.

That allowed the Land O’ Lakes defense to tee off – notching 11 sacks. Jackson Cannon led the Gators defensive unit with three sacks, followed by Shadow Williams (2), Eric Vonckx (2), Darin Patmon (1.5), Jose Santana (1.5) and Zack Stover (1).

“We honestly thought they would run the option a little bit more, so we were planning on them either in I or split backs (formation) or the triple option,” Land O’ Lakes coach Matt Kitchie said. “The positive is they went four wide receivers on us and our kids see four wide receivers everyday (in practice), so coverage-wise we were OK.

“When you’re blitzing five guys every play, those things happen. It kind of falls into your hands a little bit.”

Let’s put this into perspective.

Land O’ Lakes entered the Zephyrhills matchup with a total of 10 sacks in two games. The Gators now have 21 sacks and are averaging 7.0 sacks per game. If that manner of play continues for the Land O’ Lakes defense, which is a daunting task, they’re on pace to notch another 49 sacks in its remaining seven regular season games. That would give them a grand total of 70 sacks.

In 2009, the Land O’ Lakes defense racked up 35 sacks.