Somehow, some way, the Plant City Raiders emerged from the chaotic 7A-9 district gauntlet untouched.
I know that I picked the Raiders to win the district before this season began, but if you had told me that they’d come out of this district with a perfect record, I’d have called you crazy. It didn’t seem possible until, in my opinion, the Redman Cup win.
You’ve got to remember that, even though several of our 7A-9 friends were nowhere near as good as expected this season, the top five dogs kept things competitive until the end. It might only be Plant City and Tampa Bay Tech playing football after this week, but no one can say Durant, East Bay and Lennard had bad seasons. Each team now knows what it has to tweak for next season, which will see plenty of their key guys from 2015 returning. But there’s a time in the future for a talk about how everyone fared this season.
Let’s tip our hats to the Raiders.
It was clear that Plant City used its two-week preparation schedule well before taking the field against Lennard Friday, Oct. 30, as the Raiders were able to execute their game plan early on to make up for whatever Devin Black and Jahryn Bailey could do to them. It was nothing like the Tampa Bay Tech game, in which the Raiders spent the entire first half feeling out the opponent before taking control of the game in the second. This one was Plant City’s to lose from the first quarter on.
Markese Hargrove only scored one touchdown, which opened up the game’s scoring, but he was the straw that stirred the drink. He ate on the Lennard defense, finishing with 228 rushing yards, and kept the defenders grabbing air instead of his jersey with break after break. This allowed Plant City’s top receivers, T.J. Chase and Antoine Thompson, to make big catches.
The ground attack was so good that Chase — a four-star wideout with a commitment to No. 3 Clemson — was once left wide open in the end zone. He’s the last wideout in the district that any opposing coach would want to see waiting by himself for Corey King to throw the ball. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Lennard’s film room after that one.
There was only one time when Plant City couldn’t execute, and it was on a meaningless drive near the end of the third quarter. Hargrove got Plant City to the Lennard 11 with 27 seconds to go, and JV call-up Treshaun Ward ran for his first varsity touchdown.
It was erased by a penalty, and then followed by a King interception in the red zone. Luckily, the score was 21-7 Plant City.
I consider the 28-20 final score to be misleading, as it could have easily been a 35-14 game if not for the talents of Black and Bailey (and, per the last paragraph, the refs).
Bailey scored two touchdowns on the ground and was a threat to keep the Longhorns alive.
Black impressed me: it was my first time watching him and he could become something with development. He might have the prettiest deep ball of any QB I’ve seen in this district, maybe the strongest arm and is sneaky-fast when he’s forced to scramble.
I’ll wrap this up with something nice for Raider fans: through the team’s eight-game win streak, Plant City has allowed only 79 points — 52 throughout district play. A defense allowing an average of just over nine points per game means you have very good season. to be excited for what this team could do in the playoffs.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
