Courtesy: KHSFootball.com
Published: 07/11/2009

Bend, but don't break defense, and late game heroics by the offense has helped the Kathleen Red Devils go undefeated on day one of the USF Sling-n-Shoot Tournament. Two of the victories came with the Red Devils trailing with less than one minute remaining on the clock.

In game one the Red Devils were up against a familiar opponent in Sarasota Riverview. Both the offense and defense of Kathleen got off to slow starts. Defensively, Victor Troutman gave up a couple of big passes that kept Riverview drives alive. Offensively, Isaac O'Neal missed some reads that could have netted huge yardage. However, once the team settled down they were able to cruise to a 19-6 victory.

In game two the Red Devils faced Treasure Coast led by highly touted prospect, Jeff Luc. Once again the team got off to a slow start on both sides of the ball. Isaac O'Neal threw an early interception then the defense gave up a quick touchdown and Kathleen found themselves looking at an early 10-0 deficit. Then the trash talking followed as Treasure Coast tried to intimidate the players. After a loud pep talk from Coach Strickland the offense moved methodically down the field and scored their first touchdown of the contest. Then a big interception by Chad Abrams gave the ball back to the offense which scored the winning touchdown with less than 30 seconds remaining.

In game three the Red Devils were up against Tampa Middleton. Quick successive drives by the offense led to Kathleen being up early, but the defense got too relaxed later on in the game and almost gave Middleton a chance to make a comeback.

In the final game of the day for Kathleen the team faced off against Dwyer. The Red Devils found themselves down early in the contest after a opening drive touchdown by Dwyer and then an interception thrown by Isaac O'Neal. After Terrick Colston managed to pick off a pass, Isaac O'Neal threw a second interception and the team found themselves down by 9 points. After settling down and with help from the defense, the offense came up with big completions on third down on back-to-back possessions and managed to fight back and take a surprising lead late in the game. Chad Abrams came up with the game clinching interception in the end zone as time expired.

Overall, Coach Strickland was proud of the way the team competed. They did a good job of showing that they can come back from a deficit late in a game and pull out a victory. "The kids never doubted their abilities and it showed in those comeback games," Strickland said. "Today was a big day, but tommorrow will be even bigger."

Although the team had a great run today, tomorrow means everyone is undefeated and no team should be taken lightly. One loss and it will be a quick exit out of the championship tournament. Fans come out on Sunday to USF and help cheer the team on to victory.