Lakewood Ranch football romps past North Port for first win
Homecoming will be remembered by Lakewood Ranch High School’s football team for more than the usual reasons this year.
Mason Fischer and Chase Sharp combined for five rushing touchdowns in the first half as the Mustangs walloped North Port 42-7 in a Class 7A-District 11 game Friday. Fischer rushed for 228 yards for Lakewood Ranch (1-7, 1-4), which scored its most points of the season. The Mustangs’ 35 second-quarter points prompted a running clock after halftime.
“I’m very happy,” Lakewood Ranch head coach Mick Koczersut said. “Our kids were in a tough situation. We lost seven in a row coming into tonight. It’s an easy chance — being out of the playoffs — for the kids to kind of just cruise through everything.
“(But) I’ve been talking all year about the character of this group of kids. We haven’t had things go right for us, a lot of times, and tonight they made a difference with how hard they played. It says a lot about them and their character.”
Fischer scored on runs of 42, 30 and 1 yard in the first half. Sharp scored on runs of 14 and 2 yards. Another Mustang touchdown was scored by Nick Hoskinson, who hauled in a 37-yard pass from Justin Curtis.
Koczersut said the convincing win came despite a week of practice made difficult by homecoming distractions.
“We had a lot of stuff going on,” the coach said. “It was really a hard week for them to focus. It was a game I was really worried about, how we were going to come play tonight.”
North Port (1-8, 0-5) scored on a 56-yard pass from Devon Allen to Skylar Razwilavich with 6:47 left in the first quarter.
But tied 7-7, this time the Mustangs responded in a big way.
“The quality of kids we get to coach here is pretty neat,” Koczersut said.
Lakewood Ranch 42, North Port 7
North Port | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 7 |
Palmetto | 7 | 35 | 0 | 0 | — | 42 |
First Quarter
LWR – Mason Fischer 42 run (Travis Freeman kick), 8:32.
NP – Skylar Razwilavich 56 pass from Devon Allen (Cade Koerick kick), 6:47.
Second Quarter
LWR – Chase Sharp 14 run (Freeman kick), 9:02.
LWR – Nick Hoskinson 37 pass from Justin Curtis (Freeman kick), 4:29.
LWR – Fischer 30 run (Freeman kick), 2:33.
LWR – Sharp 2 run (Freeman kick), 1:08.
LWR – Fischer 1 run (Freeman kick), :20.
Individual statistics
Rushing – North Port: Javon Howell 6-14, C.K. Poulos 2-11, Ox Cummings 4-26, Devon Allen 1-6, Skylar Razwilavich 1-2. Lakewood Ranch: Mason Fischer 26-228, Chase Sharp 5-23, Justin Curtis 3-2, Drew Mitts 8-26.
Passing – North Port: Allen 12-27-167-3-1. Lakewood Ranch: Curtis 2-3-60-1-1.
Receiving – North Port: Razwilavich 5-81, Poulos 6-68, Andrew Bosma 1-18. Lakewood Ranch: Nick Hoskinson 2-60.
Up next
Who: Arcadia DeSoto County at Lakewood Ranch
When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published October 29, 2016 at 12:32 AM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch football romps past North Port for first win."