Plant City could clinch the district championship on Friday night.
You can’t always see the stars in the sky under the Friday night lights, but they seem to be aligning for Plant City these days.
Everyone who follows Hillsborough County football knew going into the 2018 season that the Raiders’ district, 7A-9, is a meat grinder unlike any other in the Tampa Bay area and winning it would not come easy. Tampa Bay Tech got a lot of hype as the reigning champion. Bloomingdale, which has made big strides since Max Warner took over in 2016, was widely expected to be the top challenger for the crown. Plant City, also trending upward since making its latest head coaching change, was seen as the dark horse contender in the race.
Two months later, that dark horse is pulling ahead of the pack. Plant City’s ability to solve Bloomingdale’s defense — which had put up five shutouts in seven games before last week — and play some tough D of its own have given the Raiders the clearest path to winning the 7A-9 title of any of the three teams left in the running. Tech and Bloomingdale have to rely on a lot of moving parts to take the crown, but Plant City just has to win one more game.
Plant City did well at minimizing mistakes last week and, even if the offense wasn’t able to explode as it has for much of the season, its most important job was keeping the game under control and it did just that. Braxton Plunk completed nearly 70% of his pass attempts and the receiving group of Mario Williams, Chris Wilson, De’Qwan Myers and Maurice Morris continued to be reliable targets. The offensive line and Zamir’ Knighten worked well together to help Knighten gain 129 rushing yards and score twice.
The Raiders defense forced 15 tackles for loss and racked up six sacks, three of which came from D.J. Gordon. Demije Hollins, who had nine total tackles and tied for the team lead with 3.5 for loss, seemed to be involved in every play. Tyreke Harrison, Ashton Mincey, Antron Robinson and Kody Governor each finished with five or more tackles and gave the Bulls fits.
Tampa Bay Tech is the one team that’s been able to beat Armwood, which is the one team that’s been able to beat Plant City. Like in the Armwood game, Plant City will have to try and contain a former teammate. Treshaun Ward, who started at running back for PCHS in his sophomore season and gained over 1,000 rushing yards, has been the focal point of the Titans’ offense in 2018. He leads Tech players in touches, total offensive yards and touchdowns scored, and is coming off of a 106-yard, two-touchdown performance against Durant in last week’s 51-14 win.
The Titans love to run the ball and have several other backs who have gone over the 300-yard, five-touchdown mark for the season. That’s definitely because they’re good at it, but also because they’ve lost two-time district champ Michael Penix Jr. to graduation and his replacement, sophomore quarterback David Wright, has thrown more picks than touchdown passes. Teams know what Tech’s going to do on offense — it’s just that stopping the offense is the problem.
Armwood went run-heavy on the Raiders earlier this month and couldn’t have been much more successful, finishing with a total of 368 yards and three touchdowns with 7.8 yards gained per carry. But the difference between Armwood and Tech is the Hawks’ passing attack has gotten better since their season-opening loss, and that was evident against Plant City with three passing touchdowns and an average of 18.2 yards gained per completion. It should be easier for the Raiders to focus on stopping Tech’s running game than it was against Armwood.
Legendary wrestler Ric Flair once famously said, “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.” Though Tech complicated things for itself when Bloomingdale pulled off the 33-24 upset win on Oct. 12, the Titans are still the defending champs and still a dangerous team. “Still the man,” Flair might say, but Plant City looks hungry to take that championship.
