Hillsborough coach on King: Don’t call it a rivalry

TAMPA — The king of Hillsborough County picked up another victory Friday. This one tasted a bit sweeter than others.Hillsborough scored 52 unanswered points — highlighted by a 34-point second quarter — as the Terriers routed King 52-18 on senior night. For coach Earl Garcia, the winningest prep coach in the county, it represented career victory No. 269.After Hillsborough’s fourth consecutive win this year, by a total margin of 203-31, Garcia didn’t compliment his 4-1 team until he mentioned the other side of the field, specifically targeting King coach Jon Thompson.The bad blood between the coaches was a continuation of last year, when Hillsborough’s 22-0 win against King was stopped in the third quarter because of unruly behavior.“(Thompson) came over and said some disrespectful things to me before the game,” Garcia said. "I told him to make sure he looked at this video), because we’ll show him what good coaching was.“We’ve got some bad blood between us, which makes this more fun. This is not really a rivalry — they haven’t beaten us in about 200 years. ... This guy makes playing against King fun, because they haven’t been competitive against Hillsborough since about 1900.”Thompson left the field after the game with his 4-3 team and was not available for comment.Hillsborough could do little wrong in the first half. After spotting King a 3-0 lead on the first series of the game, it dominated both sides of the ball.The Terriers scored on their first seven possessions, and put the game out of reach with the 34-point second quarter — highlighted by junior quarterback Caleb Pierce’s three first-half touchdown passes. Pierce wound up with four touchdown passes while completing 13-of-17 for 254 yards.Hillsborough’s scoring drives required only three plays (four times), one play, four plays and six plays as the Terriers piled up 360 yards. Pierce threw for 199 yards before intermission on 8-for-12 passes. His scoring strikes were to junior Dominic Reaves (20 yards), senior Kareem Chambers (37) and junior Keshawn Davila (35).The first of two first-half touchdown runs by junior Joseph Sipp Jr., a 6-yarder, put Hillsborough in front for good at 7-3 with 9:06 left in the first period. The Terriers scored only 71 seconds after King had taken a 3-0 lead on junior Joenathan Hernandez-Rivera’s 30-yard field goal to cap a 65-yard drive.Hillsborough’s defense shut down King after that. The Lions were held to minus-16 yards on 22 plays the rest of the half, failing to convert all seven third-down conversions or return to Terriers territory. Hillsborough also came up with two turnovers by senior Deaundre Butler (fumble recovery) and Davila (interception), and produced seven sacks.Junior Erriyon Knighton put the finishing touches on Hillsborough’s huge second quarter with a 42-yard TD run with 1:17 left. The second half featured a running clock. Pierce started it with a 13-yard TD strike to Chambers, his second score.King found the end zone twice after that on a run and a pass by junior quarterback Chris Moore.“(The first two quarters) was a pretty darn good perfect half,” Garcia said.“I’m very happy. Total domination. Our kids prepared well, we ran the ball when we wanted to, we threw when we wanted to, we protected the passer, our defense did well and really gave up three points. We are starting to get better and we’re starting to peak ... and that’s a good thing.”

Hillsborough coach on King: Don’t call it a rivalry

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