Graduating Lake Mary quarterback standout Gunnar Smith will quickly be taking his expertise to the University of South Florida as a summer time enrollee, however the Rams have discovered a succesful signal-caller to take his place: Logan Cook.
Cook, who will probably be a junior this fall, accomplished 7 of 10 passes for 82 yards and three touchdowns within the first half to steer the Rams to a 21-7 spring sport victory towards visiting Orange City-University. He confirmed strong management early, guiding the Rams to touchdowns on their first two collection: a 21-yard cross to Markel Jones and a 30-yard cross to Trevor Wright.
Five totally different gamers caught passes from Cook, together with Carson Hinshaw on a 32-yard scoring strike.
“Gunnar’s a hard spot to fill,” stated Cook, who performed huge receiver final yr. “He is a great leader, a great football player. But I’m very happy to be able to take over for him. I think we all played really well.”
The play of Cook, who served as Smith’s backup the final two seasons, doubtless will probably be pivotal to Lake Mary’s success this fall. The Rams are coming off a 10-2 season through which they superior to the Class 8A regional semifinals. Smith led Lake Mary to a number of playoff appearances in 4 seasons, together with a regional last in 2020 when it misplaced to Apopka, 7-6.
“I thought he did great for his first time as the man in charge of the offense,” Lake Mary coach Scott Perry stated of Cook. “He had a good arm, he moved his feet. He didn’t have very many mentals (mistakes) on his part. Really showed some good leadership. We’re very happy with our new-look offense.”
Lake Mary additionally bought some good offensive performances from working again Manqwez Lang (5-foot-10, 205 kilos), a workhorse who rumbled for 73 yards on simply 3 carries within the first half; and Hinshaw, who caught 4 passes for 51 yards within the early going. Rising sophomore working again Isaiah Thomas additionally confirmed nice pace for the Rams, and receiver Caden Harshberger performed effectively.
Meanwhile, University will probably be trying to retool its offense with the lack of quarterback Taz Figueroa and having to play many younger gamers. Cameron Jackson and Malachi Walters cut up time at quarterback, with Jackson faring the most effective in passing. Both can also run and catch, making University’s offense a various one for defenses to face.
Jackson threw a 32-yard TD cross to Jermaine Hayes within the second quarter and totaled almost 90 passing yards.
“I thought they worked hard,” University coach Brian Kells stated. “It was a good game. We came out a little tentative. We have a little bit of younger nucleus of guys so I expected (us being a little tentative) a little bit. I felt that as the game wore on, we improved and starting showing confidence, a lot of great things to build on.”
This report was first printed at Orlandosentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings could be reached by electronic mail at [email protected].
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Source: www.bostonherald.com