Indians host Wiregrass Ranch Friday
East Bay shocks Sickles 7-6
By STEVE JACKSON
Coach Frank LaRosa addressed the Indians after the team’s Homecoming victory.
EAST BAY — An overconfident Sickles High School football crossed Tampa Bay and pulled into the East Bay High School campus on Big Bend Road Friday evening with a sterling 5-1 record, and the weirdest nickname or mascot of any prep or college team in America, ready to take the gridiron against a 1-5 Indians team coming off a discouraging 51-8 loss to Tampa Bay Tech.
The Gryphons made the humbling return trip some five hours later with the same odd nickname but with a highly-wounded pride and a defeat dropping them to 5-2.
Coach Frank LaRosa’s Indians rose to the occasion for homecoming at East Bay with a thrilling 7-6 upset win over the visiting Gryphons. The season’s second-such one-point unlikely victory for the battling, beleaguered Indians improves the team’s record to 2-5 with another home game this Friday against 5-1 Wiregrass Ranch.
The Sickles game was a blue-collar defensive slugfest from start to finish with each squad managing only one lone TD each.
Homecoming King Elijah Ketchup and Queen Leena Mongillo, take their victory lap around the East Bay field last Friday night.
The difference was East Bay senior Diego Mbulo who propelled his kick over the crossbar for an early PAT midway through the first quarter. Sickles finally scored a TD midway in the fourth quarter. After the Indians were hit with a penalty for having too many players on the field for the extra point attempt, the Gryphons gambled. Sickles went for two and a lead. East Bay stymied the short running attempt. That, in essence, was the ball game: 7-6.
Each team’s offense struggled throughout the game to get a rhythm. East Bay pounded the ground early with limited success. Senior Kameron Washington scored on a 23-yard run and Mbulo converted the kick.
The game went back and forth until the 4th quarter when Sickles found the end zone as QB Brandon Dessi scored on a short sneak. Sickles, with visions of an 8-7 lead, tried a rushing attempt for two which was stuffed by junior linebacker Trevor Freel and senior defensive back Logan Webb.
Captains for the Homecoming game against Sickles were Garrett Hines #50, Taj Williams #55, Logan Webb #1 and Calvin Johnson #33.
East Bay’s defense then slammed the door on the Gryphons’ offense. The Indians finished the game allowing only 152 total yards to Sickles.
Sickles last desperate attempts on offense came up short as East Bay’s defensive line pressured and hit the Sickles’ quarterback on his final drive, ending in a shared sack by senior Jaden Santos Lopez and junior Jordan Kow.
Leading East Bay tackler for the game was senior Jackson Castillo with 7 tackles, including 1 tackle for a loss. The Indians offense was led by senior Joevon Turner’s 68 rushing yards, 35 coming on a jet sweep that helped East Bay’s offense flip the field position late.
Coach Patrick Murphy’s 7A District 9 Gryphons came into the game with big-margin wins over Spoto, Leto and Alonso as well as close victories over Middleton and Sunlake. Sickles’ only loss up to now was to Steinbrenner 41-21. On the other hand, East Bay has been struggling all season and is out of the running for a post-season playoff bid. LaRosa’s spirited but undermanned squad’s only win up to the Sickles game was an exciting donnybrook, Cinderella 35-34 miracle victory over Jefferson.
Jeeps are lined up and ready to carry the Homecoming court on the parade around the field.
However, with Homecoming on tap, East Bay players were ready for Sickles, claiming the Gryphons “have not played any good competition.”
One Indian player, Castillo, was not even playing on defense until the Sickles game. He said the East Bay defense stepped up and played typical, hard-nose East Bay football as preached by LaRosa and his staff.
Despite not making the playoffs, LaRosa was thrilled after the big Sickles win and waxed philosophical after the Sickles victory.
The veteran coach commented to media, “There is so much more to life in football than a playoff game.
“Pride!
“To get better!
“To challenge yourself as a young man!”
LaRosa added, “As a man and a football coach, you keep plugging forward no matter what … and keep swinging.
“That’s who we are,” he beamed with pride. “And we’re going to play to the last second of senior night this season. That I can promise you.”
