Too little, too late for Nease

ORLANDO - The Nease High School football team couldn't make up for Miami Washington's head start.

For the second year in a row, the Panthers came up short in the Class 4A football championship game, falling 23-15 to the Tornadoes on Saturday afternoon at the Citrus Bowl.

Nationally ranked Washington (14-0) held a 23-7 lead less than 20 minutes into the game, and Nease (13-2) spent the rest of the afternoon in a futile chase of its speedy opponent.

"Early, we couldn't block them; we couldn't stop them," Panthers coach Craig Howard said. "We had a chance to win it. We just didn't do it."

The Tornadoes, who had lost in the semifinals the last four years, had too many playmakers for the Panthers to contain. Quarterback Torrance Moise threw for 275 yards and a score and ran for 59 yards before going out late in the fourth quarter. Davon Johnson had four catches for 98 yards, and Thearon Collier added three receptions for 83 yards. Eduardo Clements ran for 100 yards and scored three times to lead Washington to its first state championship.

"We're a 14-0 team now," Tornadoes coach Tim Harris said. "We're No. 4 in the nation according to some polls. You know, we've been left out of the conversations about great teams. But now we've won a state championship. We wanted respect. It'll come now with a state championship."

Nease, which lost 25-21 to Tampa Plant in last year's 4A final, was fortunate to even be in contention in the second half. It was a dominating first 24 minutes for Washington, which rolled to 346 yards in total offense, compared to 76 for Nease.

The Tornadoes had a great chance to bury the Panthers early in the third quarter when Franklin Brown picked off a pass by Nease quarterback Ted Stachitas. The diving grab gave Washington the ball at the Panthers' 41-yard line. However, that drive ended with a missed field-goal attempt, and Nease finally came alive on offense.

Stachitas, limited in practice this week with a sore throwing arm and a sore knee that he hurt earlier in the season, led the Panthers on an 80-yard scoring drive. Patrick Barker had a 42-yard reception that helped set up his 7-yard touchdown run. Then he caught a pass from Stachitas, who was being dragged down by Brown, for the two-point conversion.

Nease went from a possible blowout to trailing just 23-15 with 4:04 remaining in the third quarter.

"I was very impressed with the way our players fought valiantly," Howard said. "We were dominated in the first half."

But the Panthers were in control after the touchdown, especially when Zack Cooper recovered his own onside kick right after Barker's score.

Starting just across the 50, Nease moved the ball inside the Washington 20. Stachitas had a chance for a big run on third-and-7, only to be tackled by a diving Tarvis Pullins for a loss. He was the last defender with a shot on the play.

Nease settled for a field-goal try, which it missed, and it never got into scoring position again.

"The time to tie the game was right there, and we didn't do it," Howard said.

Stachitas finished with 172 yards on 19-of-30 passing, but he was sacked eight times.

Barker caught four passes for 67 yards, and Matt Leighty added seven receptions for 56 yards.

"In the second half, we fought hard," Nease defensive back Graham Bates said. "This team fights hard through adversity. [But] they didn't do much to let us come back and win."