The Plant City Raiders have had plenty to celebrate this season with six wins in six games played. Now isn’t the time to get caught up in the record.
October brings about the most important stretch of football the Raiders will play in the 2018 regular season. Up next is Armwood, followed by Durant, Bloomingdale and Tampa Bay Tech. Three of the four games will be played at home and the lone road game, next week at Durant, will have high stakes as the annual Battle for the Redman Cup. District foes Tech and Bloomingdale, like Plant City, are currently undefeated.
This four-week slate of games could net Plant City plenty of bonus points in the FHSAA standings. The Raiders have no choice but to play well throughout October to make it back into the playoffs for the first time since 2015 — otherwise, their Oct. 26 game against Tech will effectively end their season before their Nov. 2 bye.
That all starts this week with the Hawks.
Armwood is on a four-game win streak after Tech handed the Hawks their only loss of the season in the Aug. 24 opener. Most recently, Armwood hosted Blake and flexed its muscles in a 49-19 win locked up with five touchdowns in the first half. But the 2018 Hawks haven’t been dominating opponents the way they have in the past, especially on the road. In back-to-back weeks at Plant and Chamberlain, the Hawks won both games by a combined nine points: 21-18 in a thriller at Plant and 20-14 in a game where Chamberlain was able to keep the Hawks from scoring in the second half.
The Raiders are coming off of a 35-0 shutout win at Strawberry Crest where the Chargers defense tried to limit the PCHS passing game as much as possible, daring Plant City to find another way to beat them. It wasn’t a typical offensive performance for the Raiders — Braxton Plunk threw for a season-low 170 yards and playmaker Mario Williams was kept quiet — but Plant City did indeed find other ways to beat their opponents and still got four touchdowns from Zamir’ Knighten and De’Qwan Myers.
Plunk and the Raiders likely won’t face the same kind of resistance from the Hawks. Both Chamberlain and Jefferson threw for more than 230 yards on Armwood and in both cases, the quarterbacks completed 65% or more of their pass attempts. Plant quarterback Tucker Gleason only threw for 109 yards and one touchdown against the Hawks, but Gleason also picked up 100 rushing yards and a score on 15 carries a week before Chamberlain quarterback Tyler Riddell ran eight times for 66 yards and a score. These are all good signs for Plunk, who is both a solid decision-maker with legit weapons and a fearless, capable runner.
No matter how depleted this Armwood squad is from last season, it’s not going to be a cakewalk for Plant City. Beating Armwood isn’t out of the question, either. October will tell everyone what the Raiders are all about, and they can start on a high note by coming ready to compete Friday night.