One-upped: Class 1B Keswick beats Pinellas Park

Chalk another one up for the small schools.

Keswick Christian stormed out to a 16-point, third-quarter lead on Class 5A Pinellas Park Thursday night before holding on for a 23-21 win in a spring classic in St. Pete.

The Class 1B Crusaders, buoyed by two TD runs from Jared DiMaggio, stopped Pinellas Park on a potential game-tying, two-point conversion with just under two minutes left to seal the deal.

On the play, Pinellas Park QB Jesse Redden scrambled on a bootleg to his left before getting stuffed two feet short by Crusaders sophomores Isaac Huntley and Doug Sanson.

"We've got 150-pound guys vs their 250 pounders," DiMaggio said. "And we held our own."

Much like 1A Northside Christian did in their 27-7 upset over 5A Seminole on Saturday, Keswick Christian executed on both sides of the ball - and were especially strong up front.

Pinellas Park's passing game - sparked by Redden's strong bootlegs and rollout throws -- kept the Crusaders on their toes. The Patriots even pulled out some trickery - a double-pass on 4th-and-3 with two minutes left that turned into a 53-yard touchdown pass from receiver Carlton Green.

But in the end, it was several fumbles (two muffed snaps) by Pinellas Park - along with a spectacular, one-handed interception by Keswick's Tarvin Jones -- that helped make the difference.

"I don't care if there 1B or 6A, they know how to win," Pinellas Park coach Matt Lance said. "They are well coached and they didn't make mistakes."

--- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

Pinellas Park quarterback Jesse Redden #3 attempts to hurdle Keswick Christian's Curtis Fisher (22, down on left) and Roman Bruce

Comments

[ETC]

This adds fuel to the fire that Private and Public need to meet more often and in the regular season.

agreed!!!

[Rick]

Pinellas Park is like a 1A school, they get trashed every year by both 4A & 5A schools. PP has won maybe two games in the last three seasons. Keswick or IRC would not win any more than PP if they played in either 4A / 5A districts. TS has been an average 4A tram in Pinellas and they now play in the Pasco district and made playoffs each yeat. 1A/B schools cannot compete with 95% of Pinellas Public schools.

[JAMES T. KIRK]

WHY DON'T THEY TRY PLAYING NOTHEAST,LARGO, BOGIE OR DUNEDIN AND SEE IF THEY CAN STILL HANG. THOSE SCHOOLS BEAT THE BOTTOM OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BARREL. KESWICK AND NORTHSIDE ARE BOTH WELL COACHED TEAMS BUT WILL NEVER, EVER BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE TOP PUBLIC SCHOOL TEAMS IN THE COUNTY ON A CONSISTENT BASIS. BUT HEY, A WIN IS A WIN AND I WILL SURELY GIVE THEM THAT. ALSO, GAMES LIKE THIS ARE A NO WIN SITUATION FOR ANYONE ABOVE 4A FOOTBALL. IF YOU WIN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO AND IF YOU LOSE LIKE IN THE CASE OF SEMINOLE AND PINELLAS PARK YOU LOOK FOOLISH. THAT IS THE PERCEPTION IN THE COUNTY.

[ETC]

My point is only that it would be interesting to see them play better public schools to see how they would fair. I agree they should get props for beating Ppark and Seminole so we should just let them have there day even if those 2 teams win a collective 4 games all year.

Those games are like the super bowl for the smaller private schools (excluding CCC and SPC) so let them enjoy them.

[KIRK OUT]

TRUE!!!!

ETC, You hit the nail on the head with your comments. In fact, If I remember right in the case of SPC, all the Publics were far away from any games with them in the past 8 yrs when they were posting a winning record. But before the hay-day at SPC they were evryones (Public and local-Privates)Homecomming game. I'm sure this next year with SPC being down, SPC will be a welcome game to ALL, again. So go go go Keswick,Canterbury and Northside. ENJOY THE MOMENT AND CONTINUE YOUR SUCCESS>>>>A FAN.

[Kirk you suck]

You are a homo kirk

[Steve]

Both Seminole and PP contacted the "little" schools to play in the spring game. Keswick and Northside are both less than 300 students total in their high schools while the "public" schools have 300 in one class. Maybe you should be more critical of Sem. and PP for not having better teams than taking something away from the smaller schools for winning.

[southerner]

Well said Steve! The key players at Keswick would be key players in many of the public schools as well. Several of the Keswick coaches coached the South All star game last year. The south won. People need to get over the small guys and give credit were it's due!

What Pinellas School has 300 kids in one classroom? This is high school not college Steve get it together.

To be honest I dont believe those guys from keswick would play if they went to Largo, Dunedin, or Northeast but they could probably get PT at most other schools.

Does anyone know the Osceola vs. Springstead score????

3:47 You are the idiot, anyone with half a brain can realize Steve was speaking in terms of grade level. The only mistake he made was he should have said 400 or 500!

Trust me, there are 4 or 5 players on the Keswick team that could start in Public School. The Keswick kid in the All-Star game last year could have easily started for any school in the county.

i play on northside and seminole sux, and i wish we wouldve played a better public school team....but it doesnt matter we still won when we shouldnt have. and northside is gunna beat keswick this year no doubt. we are more well rounded and have a much much quicker defense..it should be an interesting game though

Northside has the softest players in the county, except Seminole...quick defense, Keswick has racked up at least 600 yrds. of offense against your defense in the last two seasons, and most of their offense is back this year except Anderson. You guys are soft.

oh ya were soft all right...we only ruptured tony's spleen...tony is the biggest pansy ive ever played against, and dimaggio did nothing against us tony was your whole offense

It wasn't the Keswick players crying on the field last year...it was soft northside...I have never seen a team brag so much, yet you haven't beat keswick in two years...beat them first and then we will talk

Dimaggio has had at least 275 yrds rushing against your soft defense, you can't stop him, nor contain him. I know that you are bitter that Kewick own you, but that's the way it goes...quit being so soft

idk wtf ur talking about..we werent crying...srry that keswick had to forfeit all of last season cuz they had an illegal player...so we actually won that game last year but neways we will defiantely win this year

To all the public school advocates: As a player for one of these private schools, we never said we could beat Largo or Dunedin or Northeast or that we were the best teams in the county, we just got an opportunity to play schools in this county that we don't normally play to see how we could match and obviously it worked out well for us. Now that we've beat "two teams with a collective 4 wins last year" maybe we should play some better public schools next year; but the schedules are already set people. We just wanted to show people that we can play some football at a private school and earn some respect. Thanks Steve for seeing this in a logical way.

Just like Northside, crying, whinning, soft, rich kids who have to take a win any way they can get it. Can't win on the field...so you have to crying to mama so your self esteem won't get damaged. A real team wouldn't want a win by forfeit...and get your story straight, there was a clerical error in the paperwork. I bet the real men of northside would rather win on the field...you are still being breast-fed by mama...who has issues on her own

will you morons shut up and we'll just "win it on the field" next year instead of trying to win it with words.

man your spelling is horrible. Tell mama to come off the Prozac and pay attention to where her, I mean her husband's $10,000 a year is going, because it sure is not going to Northside's higher education. I would get my money back mama...no more breast milk for him.

bro this is aint the same kid youve been talking to. and the spelling doesnt have anything do with anything bro. see you on the field in november at northside

[ETC]

Wow when did this turn into a Northside vs. Keswick thing?

12:04- I agree with you and regardless what there records were you guys came into the game as underdogs and you took care of business so you should be proud.

Of course we would all like to see private schools play other public schools but we all know that is highly unlikely to happen in the regular season.

Until then I say you guys go challenge a Public school every spring and fall classic and if you win enough of these games people will take notice and maybe then someone will think to set-up these regular season matchups

One school I would love to see a team like keswick, calvary or northside play is PHUH. I did not say CCC because they would be the favorite to win that anyway. That would be a good match-up for you guys next year.

Dimaggio only did one thing during the Northside game..............won it for Keswick. He single handedly walked the ball accross the goal line with 3 Nside players on his back.

Thanks ETC, you're seeing this in the logical way too. Unfortunately for me, since I'm a senior and our fall classic is already set against Berkeley, Seminole was my first and only shot at a Pinellas public team. I would very much like to play some better ones in this county but I won't. But Northside and Keswick could and should continue to do that for the next few years, but not Calvary, whom both Northside and Keswick slaughtered last year. But thanks for the respect.

12:04

Calvery should be decent this year. They recruited, yes RECRUITED 10 guys from various backgrounds to play football this year. they did the same thing for basketball last year and they got themselves on the map! By the way northside, kesick, Indian rocks are not made up of a bunch of rich kids. that honor goes to SHORECREST!

Why all the keswick northside banter? It's a meaningless game for both parties as they are not in the same district.

did ke sick hire mancuso they are cheating like he is on staff so much for the christians. cooper

1:03 I agree that there shouldn't be all the Northside Keswick banter, but it is not meaningless game. It is a HUGE rivalry game for both teams, maybe the biggest rivals on each others schedule. Even though it's not a district game it is a Bay Conference game and as always, gives bragging rights to the winner.

because keswick wins, then they are cheating...just like a softy...I guess private schools are supposed to accept losing and if they are winning they mst be recuiting...right! I tell you there are some ignorant people out there who are also jealous. Keswick is building a great program, but i guess people have to remind you that you are a christian because you are winning. Christians can win also.

you know, id like to know exactly how us private schools are cheating when we take it to a couple public schools. just a thought...

any time a public school loses, they blame recruiting...so I can see why they are furious now, Keswick and Northside win and the Public Schools feel that they lost there sense of entitlement. You have no right to win, you must earn it. Be a man, and quit making excuses. Private schools have good coaching also...just ask the North County All-Star coaches who got trounced by the Keswick coaching staff in the All-Star game. the North clearly thought that Keswick couldn't out-coach them but then they got a dose of reality. The Countryside Coach still can't believe what happened to them.

1:39, you are exactly right!!!
signed,
a public highschool teacher with kids in private school.

hey Keswick rocks end of story. We destroyed Northside last season at our homecoming game so shut up. Keswick has bragging rights this year if Northside can beat Keswick (not going to happen) this year on November 9 then you can talk but until then SHUT UP DiMaggio helped Keswick destroy Northside last year and he will do it again this year. maybe if Northside had any of the amazing talent and awesome coaching Keswick has maybe Nothside would stand a chance. Besides the freshman that are the team have great talent also. Keswick has an awesome starting lineup and and amazing reserve so Keswick wins Northside you are going down. So Northside SHUT UP

2:28 cool out man. this aint like life or death here bro. ok yall won, we'll give that to you but, destroyed? i dont think but whatever. this isnt even a northside keswick thing. its public/private bro.

It makes no sense for a public school to play any private school.

Example: If Lakewood played St. Pete Catholic....here is what happens
A. Lakewood wins. Everyone says, "They should have won, they have 5 times as many students."
B. Lakewood loses. Everyone says, "I can't believe they lost."

Either way, it's bad for the public school. Heck, most of the time if the private is even close then they say, "We can compete with anyone."

So why would a public school put themselves out there like that? It doesn't make sense.

lets get back to the key point---p park sucks as usual.

It doesn't matter that a public school has four times as many students who can play, most of those kids don't want to play anyways. Also, there are plenty of good athletes that go to a noncompetitive public school and don't wish to play for the team because they find it embarrassing to lose so badly.

Those kids are losers

First off keswick lets not talk about who has the better D, you guys are living in the past we know u beat us last year and we know Dimagio played well, but if im not mistaken i can remember PPark's O completely killing your D, you guys definetly looked like a "privare" school on defense, and if im not mistaken i dont think Seminole had 100 total yards on northside's starting D sooo i dont know whose soft and whose D is better. lets stop the jaw jabbin u won congrats but that was last yr beat us again by more then 1 point on a 2 point conversion then come talk 2 us. (Fix your D)

Secondly i dono who said anything about NCS and Keswick and IRC having rich soft kids and Shorecrest winning or W/E cuz ur an idiot Shorecrest has the richest school in the county so that means the snobbiest kids, and with 1 guy over 200 pounds i dont know if they are real tough

Lastly just no 1 say anything about Calvary 10 new guys on a football team is a little ridiculous start beating some teams and then they can talk until then just stay quiet its better for you guys.
P.S. i dont kno if you could find anyone over in Africa that can play football like you did to get that guy over here to play BBall for ya

First off keswick lets not talk about who has the better D, you guys are living in the past we know u beat us last year and we know Dimagio played well, but if im not mistaken i can remember PPark's O completely killing your D, you guys definetly looked like a "privare" school on defense, and if im not mistaken i dont think Seminole had 100 total yards on northside's starting D sooo i dont know whose soft and whose D is better. lets stop the jaw jabbin u won congrats but that was last yr beat us again by more then 1 point on a 2 point conversion then come talk 2 us. (Fix your D)

Secondly i dono who said anything about NCS and Keswick and IRC having rich soft kids and Shorecrest winning or W/E cuz ur an idiot Shorecrest has the richest school in the county so that means the snobbiest kids, and with 1 guy over 200 pounds i dont know if they are real tough

Lastly just no 1 say anything about Calvary 10 new guys on a football team is a little ridiculous start beating some teams and then they can talk until then just stay quiet its better for you guys.
P.S. i dont kno if you could find anyone over in Africa that can play football like you did to get that guy over here to play BBall for ya

that has to be a soft northside player, first of all...Pinellas Park had 33 yrds rushing for the whole game...so i don't know what you were in the stands watching Northside, second, P Park would kill Seminole 50-0...Seminole looked like Cantebury...I mean they were awful. You guys need to beat Keswick first before you talk. And that won't happen next year. you are too soft

u better just watch out cause northsides not so soft anymore, dont be crying when we settle it on the field instead of talking crap over a dumb blog

northside will always be soft...period, your athletes are from soft neighborhoods, and your parents are overly protective...they have feminized you...that is why you go to northside

northside will always be soft...period, your athletes are from soft neighborhoods, and your parents are overly protective...they have feminized you...that is why you go to northside

I was at the P-Park at Keswick game. First of all if you want to get technical it was a 21-21 tie in varsity action. The JV's gave up the saftey. Secondly, the d-line of keswick is so small that they would get mowed down by most public schools. I would agree that Pinellas Park and Seminole are bottome feeders right now. They will probably go 1-9 and 0-10 with the one win being the head to head match up. I cannot think of one other school in the county that Keswick could even step on the field with.

Notice how nobody mentions Farragut anymore. Man, that program has been run into the ground.

[himcospaz buy]

Life is designed by some sort of intelligence, God created life

[holy warrior]

If Keswick plays a team of Muslims and they both pray, WHO WINS??

[Glenn]

MY GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!!

The team with the most points at the end. Duh.

[world beer championship]

My mind is like a fog, not that it matters. I just don't have much to say these days. That's how it is. I haven't been up to anything recently.

[JESSE REDDEN]

i play qb at ppark it was 16 0 wen i got in and it was the second quarter with two minutes and and twenty seconds. First drive we got in we moved 80 yards in 45 seconds. In the second half they scored onces and so i and we came back then i missed the game winning two point convertion by an inch. In my eyes i would love to play them again our varsity put up 21 theres put up 7.If i had a whole game i would show those little kids whats up. Plus you all see that picture i am running and throwin all over them.O yeah last thing 2 quarters and 19 of 23 and 200 something passing yards an i got my share of rushing yards so yall keep talking down on the park and I will catch up with yall when im on top of our leauge.

[wright college book store]

Teachers must be paid based on performance

[candy stand golf]

College education is a basic need today

[sleepsins]

People are less moral than 30 years ago