NORTH PORT
Seven minutes after kickoff Tuesday night, it might have been difficult to convince someone that Southeast lost nine of its 10 games last fall.
The visiting Seminoles scored touchdowns on four of their first nine plays — including Qion Burch's 80-yard romp on the opening snap and his 25-yard interception return — and led 35-0, on the way to a 56-14 thrashing of North Port at The Preserve.
Kevin Johnson of Southeast runs against North Port in a spring classic Tuesday at the Bobcats Preserve. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
"There's no game plan you can put in place where you look up at the clock and see eight minutes to go in the first quarter, and you already have a three-touchdown lead," said 'Noles coach John Warren.
The explanation might be very simple.
Southeast is buying in.
"We're running the same playbook we had last year, we just have more players on board," said fellow junior Kevin Johnson, who carried 12 times for a game-high 157 yards and two TDs.
"Last year, we had people fighting our system, saying, 'I'm not doing this because this isn't my spot.' This year, we're more family, more like brothers. I had last carry, so I can give you one."
Burch added 134 yards on just five rushes, part of Southeast's 443 total yards.
"We're communicating better, we're working better and we're always in the weight room, getting better," Burch said. "We're strictly business about school and about football. We're better prepared."
The Bobcats, also coming off a 1-9 finish in 2014, had minus-1 yard rushing and minus-12 passing until freshman Miles Hayes' 25-yard pass down the middle to junior Juvens Delise, on third-and-12 from his own 31, with 2:05 left in the opening quarter.
On the next play, Hayes' pass to Stantley Thomas was picked off by Jaquan Taylor — one of seven turnovers forced by Southeast's defense.
"It was a group effort. We did things on both sides of the ball that you can't do," said first-year North Port coach Brian Hatler.
"It's not fun, but it is what it is, and we've got to learn how to play hard on a consistent basis. Obviously, we had some errors that you would expect at this point in our progress. We've just got to do a good job as coaches in making those corrections and getting better as a football team overall."
No fun for North Port, but tons-o-fun for Southeast.
"Football teams love the spring for a reason, so we can execute and work on things we need to work on," said Warren, who struggled last fall to measure up to the expectations left by retired legend Paul Maechtle, who won 283 games and two state titles in 33 years.
"I think both teams wanted to win tonight, so we could go into the summer conditioning on a high note. That is something we're going to be able to do now, with the momentum we take out of this game."
The Bobcats did have two highlight-worthy moments — a 74-yard interception return by freshman Cesar Poulos early in the second quarter and a 21-yard lob pass on fourth-and-16 from junior Anthony Brown to Thomas (four catches, 49 yards) at the goal line.
Shortly after Thomas' TD made it 56-14, lightning strikes in the area – which forced Friday's postponement — prompted the teams to call it a night with 4:54 remaining in the game.
"We had 19 really good practices," Warren said. "What we didn't know was what our kids would look like after a four-day layover."
Junior quarterback Joey Giardina, last fall's backup, was 4-of-6 for 96 yards, including scoring strikes of 18 and 41 yards to freshman Tyler Stevenson.
"We didn't know we were going to come out like that," Johnson said. "But even after it was 35-0, we said on the sideline, 'We're going to do our jobs.' Our offensive line was top notch today. They really did their jobs."
The Seminoles, who held only one opponent under 20 points in 2014, host Tampa Leto in their Kickoff Classic (Aug. 21) and open the regular season at Brooksville Nature Coast Tech (Aug. 28).
North Port visits Lehigh Acres Lehigh Senior for its preseason game (Aug. 21) and hosts Fort Myers Cypress Lake in the regular season debut (Aug. 28).
