Bayshore takes first lead of season, but can’t hold on in loss to North Port

This season has been a learning experience that can be very painful for the Bayshore High School football team.

But Bruins head coach John Biezuns preached looking at the good things after his team’s 35-12 loss to North Port in a battle of winless teams on Saturday at Balvanz Stadium.

Bayshore took its first lead of the season, scored two touchdowns for the first time and led 12-0 at halftime. Unfortunately the Bruins, who scored a total of seven points coming into the game, couldn’t hold on. North Port scored at will in the second half to turn the game into a rout.

“I told them at halftime this was a new territory for us. We hadn’t had a lead at halftime and this was the most points we scored,” Biezuns said. “There were smiles in the locker room, and people really didn’t know how to react. I know how to react. You have to play a second half. In the first half we played pretty well, and then in the opening drive of the second half we had a couple of freshmen in there and varsity is a different speed.”

Bayshore (0-6) scored its first touchdown with 6:22 remaining in the first half when Nick Charles-crowl caught a 20-yard pass from Brian Coleman to cap a 45-yard, five-play drive. The Bruins missed the kick on the extra point.

The Bruins’ defense rose to the occasion, stopping North Port on a fourth-and-1 at its 31 to get a short field. Bayshore scored five plays later when Coleman hit Deny Dessin with a 10-yard scoring strike. In the first half, Bayshore held North Port to 80 yards of offense and was on top of things.

After the game Biezuns preached to his players that when they have somebody down they have to step on their throat.

“We kind of came out and said we are up, but we didn’t know what to do,” he told them. “You guys have to have that; it’s little bit of moxie and a little bit of sway. You got to suffocate somebody and put them away and get some more points. We had it in the first half, and it just went away. So there are some positives out of this, most important, we had a halftime lead, and I don’t think this is the last time this will happen.”

North Port quarterback Devon Allen threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to CK Poulos to open the second half. After the Bruins went three and out, the Bobcats took advantage of a short field. Javon Howell scored from 9 yards out to give the visitors a 14-12 lead.

North Port turned the game into a rout in the fourth quarter with touchdowns on three consecutive possessions. Allen threw a 33-yard scoring pass to Polous, and Allen took it in from 2 and 1 yard out on drives triggered by Howell.

“We started three freshman today, that’s pretty uncharacteristic for a high school football team,” Biezuns said. “Our starting quarterback was out with a concussion, and we were also missing a wide receiver and our starting running back (Miguel Rodriguez) was out for the start of the game. When you start two freshman in a varsity football game you are going to have mistakes. We did some things well and some things not so well.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2016 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Bayshore takes first lead of season, but can’t hold on in loss to North Port."