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Seabreeze spoils homecoming at DeLand
Leroy Houston scores TDs on the first 3 times he catches the ball in the 26-20 win.
Buddy Collings | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 23, 2006
DeLAND -- A week after losing the guy who had provided most of its offense to injury, Seabreeze found another route to the end zone Friday night.
Leroy Houston, a slippery junior running back, scored the first three times he caught passes out of the backfield as the Class 4A Sandcrabs (4-1) won 26-20 at 6A DeLand (2-2).
"I had to step up real big tonight," Houston said after the win put a damper on DeLand's homecoming. "They got the ball to me and it was successful."
Seabreeze had put the ball mostly in quarterback Troy Dannehower's hands until he suffered a concussion last week in a loss at Merritt Island. But the Sandcrabs aren't a one-man show as long as they have Houston and James Scott -- two of Central Florida's quickest players.
Scott, a senior who flies out this morning for a recruiting trip to Ohio State, opened the game with a 95-yard kick return touchdown.
After DeLand pulled even at 6-6, Houston took the game over with two TDs in 54 seconds. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound junior finished with 63 yards on 16 carries and 107 yards on five receptions from backup quarterback Will Saffen. Saffen was intercepted twice, but also completed 8 of 16 passes.
DeLand's big offensive line cleared enough room for another productive night by its dynamic duo of junior halfback Nieko Pate (13 carries, 60 yards) and sophomore slasher Michael Gillislee (15 carries, 96 yards). But the Bulldogs turned over the ball five times, had a punt blocked and played from behind most of the night.
The 'Dogs executed a fake punt and then scored with 58 seconds to go, but ran out of time after Seabreeze's David Williams cleanly handled an onside kick attempt.