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Football: Clearwater Central Catholic 50, Jacksonville University Christian 0

 
Published Oct. 11, 2014

CLEARWATER — It was an all too familiar scene. Clearwater Central Catholic senior quarterback Jeff Smith drops back to pass, but before he can find an open receiver he finds a 10 foot hole created by his offensive line.

Smith darts through the hole and into the secondary, and when Smith is there it's time for the cheerleaders to do push-ups because he's going to score.

On Friday night the victim was Jacksonville University Christian. Smith rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns and added 225 yards passing and two scores to lead the Marauders to a 50-0 rout of the Christians.

"Jeff has been that good every game," CCC coach John Davis said. "If there's somebody playing better than him in the state of Florida I want to see him."

Smith took three plays and 49 seconds to establish himself. After a long pass, a penalty and a short run, Smith ran untouched from 17 yards for the game's first touchdown. Two offsides penalties by the Christians on the point after led the Marauders to go for two. Scott DePergola ran in the conversion to make it 8-0.

University Christian fumbled on its first possession, which led to an 11-play, 76-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard run by C.J. Cotman. Then Smith showed off a little more.

On the first play of the third possession, Smith ran 84 yards down the left sideline to make it 22-0. Then came a 55-yard pass to John Brunner for a 29-0 lead. Smith ran 30 yards to make it 36-0. And with 23 seconds left in the half it became 43-0 after Smith hit Cotman on a 64-yard bomb.

"The coaches stressed that we needed to come out fast," Smith said. "We were able to do that by scoring four straight touchdowns. Their defense blitzed a lot so once I got passed them I was in the secondary. It's just speed from there."

With a running clock CCC scored on its first drive of the third quarter. After stopping the Christians on downs, Cotman ran in from 37 yards for the game's final score.

Cotman had 64 yards rushing and added 96 yards receiving.

"It was really smooth tonight," Cotman said. "Everyone did their jobs. It was just everyone doing their thing as a team."

"We just played really well," Davis said. "When you come out and get going the way we did it's hard to stop. I told them it's probably the best we've played all year. They are a good football team. They have athletes. It's not like we beat up on a bad team by any means."