Mike Ridaught
Adam Gore is back as head coach of the Chiefland Indians.
After Thursday night’s showing at the Levy County spring game against host Bronson and Williston, Chiefland fans are happy to have him.
The Indians defeated Bronson, 30-0, in the first quarter of action, and then proceeded to shut out Williston, 16-0, in the next 15 minutes of play.
They dominated both lines of scrimmage and showed they had a lot of weapons in the backfield.
“We want to go running back by committee,” Gore said. “We’ve got some guys that can run the ball. Like most teams, you’re only as good as your offensive line is. We want to be tough up front. That’s really what the spring was about was establishing some toughness up front.”
They established that toughness early. In fact, it only took two plays for the Indians to get on the scoreboard in the first quarter of action against Bronson.
After taking over at their own 35-yard line following a Bronson 3-and-out, rising sophomore Dakota Fisher took the handoff from quarterback Donovan Minicello and raced 36 yards down the left sidelines.
That set up a 29-yard touchdown run by Paul Davis, who broke a tackle and scored with 13:15 to play in the opening quarter. Junior Brown ran in the conversion to make it 8-0.
A Chiefland fumble recovery led to the next score.
From the Bronson 29-yard line, Jamie Strong had a 20-yard run to give the Indians a first-and-goal at the nine-yard line.
A few plays later, Brown punched it in from a yard out to make it 14-0 with 11:04 to play in the quarter.
Strong added a five-yard touchdown run and Fisher had a pick-6 to complete the scoring.
The Eagles, who are coached by Russell Holley, finished second in the three-team jamboree.
It was a scoreless game between the Eagles and the Red Devils until Bronson quarterback Riley Bray found Jesse Williams on a 40-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field with just under a minute to play in the quarter for a 6-0 win.
“We fought hard,” Holley said. “Things didn’t go well for us early. We actually had four turnovers in the first quarter. But defensively I thought we played well. We were actually missing three starters on defense, and we were without two running backs. We showed our depth.”
Williston has a new head coach this season in former Lecanto coach Greg Harper.
“We’ve come a long way,” Harper said. “Our record is still 0-0 for next year. I told the kids before this week that we’ve got a lot of work still to do. But I’m proud of the work they’ve done this spring. We’ll just keep getting better.”