Special to the News-Sun
FORT MEADE - The Highlands Youth Football and Cheer Organization (HYFC) took to the road this week to Fort Meade to take on the Fort Meade Miners on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Going into week eight of the season, the Highlands Eagles football teams are nearing the end of the regular season.
Each team is looking at the stats and the talk of playoffs is widespread throughout the Sunshine Police Athletic League (PAL) association.
Each game day and every "W" that is earned gets them seeded higher as they are on the road to the playoffs.
HYFC is proud to announce that all of the Highlands Eagles teams have made it to the Wildcard Round of the playoffs scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27.
The first game this week featured the Flag team.
With a strong offensive drive, the Eagles took an early lead as quarterback Julian Cardoso handed off to Fred Hankerson for a touchdown.
The offense continued to roll with multiple touchdowns by John Alexander and Hankerson.
The defense made their presence known and stood strong with key plays by Cardoso, Alexander, Koda Cabrera, Romeo Castellanos, Clayton Hooks and Willie King.
Add it all up and it totaled another win for the Eagles Flag team with a final score of 26-18.
With the win, the Eagles Flag team record is 5-2 and in third place in the NFC division of the Sunshine PAL- Lakeland League.
The next game featured the Mighty Mights.
The Eagles got an early score when Taivion Coston took a kickoff return all the way back for a touchdown.
But the offense struggled in the second half.
And while the defense fought hard with solid tacking by Xavier Mobley, Ronnie Roberts and Coston, the Miners defensive stance, costly turnovers and penalties thwarted all the Eagles efforts to get into the end zone.
And when the dust had settled, the Eagles were on the wrong side of the 34-6 final score, bringing their record to 1-6 dropping them to fifth place in the division.
The third game of the day was the Pee Wee team that looked to rebound after a tough loss to the Hornets last week.
They got off to a great start with a 68-yard kickoff return by Kasey Hawthorne to take an early lead, 6-0.
The defense took the field led by Darryl Holdman, Anthony Burch and Irvin Roberts to provide a strong stance holding the Miners off.
The Eagles offense got strong blocking from lineman Joel Murillo, Austin Whidden and Jordan Rose, paving the way for quarterback James Pearson to pass the ball to Hawthorne for a 52-yard touchdown.
The defense remained strong and the offense continued to romp with Camren Spaulding earning key yardage to lead to another 49-yard touchdown for Hawthorne.
Going into halftime, the Eagle Pee Wees were up 22-0.
In the second half, the defense continued to shine with key tackles by Emmit Beasley and Jacob Bennett.
Hawthorne stole the show, however, scoring five touchdowns, earning two extra-point kicks and gaining over 400 yards rushing for the day.
The offense had more than 600 yards for the day and the defense held the Miners to six points, giving the Eagles the 34-6 win, bringing their record to 5-2 and third place in the division.
Next up was the undefeated Junior Varsity (JV) team that quickly made its' presence known when Jalen Williams rushed 55 yards down the field, allowng CJ Harris to score the first touchdown of the day.
The defense quickly got the ball back when Williams recovered a fumble.
CJ Harris then handed off to Akem JnPierre for a 35-yard score.
Harris earned the extra point making the score 13-0.
The Eagles quickly shut down the Miners with key tackles by JnPierre, Harris and Williams, with Brandon Garcia recovering another fumble to get the ball back.
The offense quickly responded with a 50-yard Rafael Smith touchdown run and DJ Taylor earned the extra point to make it 20-0 at the half.
On the opening kick of the third quarter, Malcolm Jackson returned the ball 60 yards to make it a 26-0 game.
The JV defense dominated the field in the second half with key tackling by Garcia, Colton Williams, CJ Berish and another fumble recovery by Nathan Leonardo.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Miners were able to get around the end to score a touchdown, but DJ Taylor answered right back with a 35-yard TD.
Norris "Fish" Taylor earned the extra point to put the stamp on the 33-7 win.
The JV Eagles remain undefeated at 7-0 and have clinched first place in NFC division.
The Varsity team finished out the day with a victory by forfeit to bring their record to 7-0 and first place in the division.
On the sidelines, the Lady Eagle cheerleaders kept cheering the boys on and kept the crowds spirited and have been working diligently to prepare for their upcoming Cheerleading Competition scheduled for the weekend of October 20.
The Eagles look forward to hosting the Homecoming contest against the North Tampa Buccaneers at Joe Franza Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 6.
HYFC will be crowning a King and Queen of the season for each team division and have some special festivities in store to bring about an exciting day of football.
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, several of the teams will be wearing pink tape on their cleats, shoelaces, arm bands, mouthpieces, chin straps and bracelets.
The Cheerleaders will be wearing pink ribbons in their hair on game days for the month of October.
Some of the Youth Football staff have family members that are battling breast cancer, or are a survivor and is it a great tribute and support to see the players and cheerleaders proudly supporting this cause.
Games will begin Saturday at 9 a.m., with admission $4 for adults and $3 for children.
Come on out to support the Highlands Youth Football and Cheer program.
Sunday, October 07, 2012 - www.newssun.com/SUN-10-07-12-HYF