By Travis Coleman
Contributing Writer
Twitter – @tcole2025
On Thursday night, the Forest High School Wildcats traveled to Citizens Field to take on the Gainesville High Hurricanes. The trip was a fruitless effort however, and ended up with a Hurricane blowout of 46-7.
Gainesville scored on every possession they had in the game except for one, in what was a truly dominant effort from start to finish.
The one-two punch of running backs KZ Hutchinson and Niles Cromwell was the driving force behind the offensive explosion for GHS.
Hutchinson contributed four touchdowns in earning Sonic Player of the Game honors, while Cromwell added two more. He had nothing but praise for his offensive line after the game.
“The O-line blocked pretty good, opened up big holes, and I was just able to get through,” he said.
Hutchinson, who was the team’s second leading rusher and third leading receiver going into the game, put on a show in front of the home crowd.
The other GHS touchdown was from quarterback Luke Matthews who hit wide receiver Seth Cox on an 89-yard bomb. The 89 yards were just one chunk of the 321 Matthews had passing on the night, with a bunch of those going to receiver Jalen Kelsey.
Kelsey looked like he had Velcro on his hands, making catch after catch in the game.
Forest managed to move the ball decently all night, thanks to some big plays from running back Lamarkces Bassett. He had a huge kick return on their only touchdown drive of the night, and one could argue the only reason they scored is because he got them inside the 10 from the start.
Bassett picked up a few more chunk plays throughout the night, but it wasn’t enough for an overmatched Forest team that continually shot itself in the foot with turnovers.
With the win, Gainesville moves to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Class 6A-District 5, while Forest falls to 3-3 and 1-1. The Hurricanes next game will be against rival Buchholz next week at Citizen’s Field. Forest has a bye week before taking on Lake Weir (Ocala) on October 12.
Good luck to both teams in their future games. For more local high school football articles and updates, follow me on Twitter @tcole2025.
