GOLDEN GATE — One of the cliches uttered by many high school football coaches following spring games is, “We played well, but we have a lot to work on.”
After Tuesday’s spring football game between Barron Collier and Charlotte at Golden Gate High School, both teams have a lot of work to do on defense.
It was the Cougars who had the last word as Simon Hincape scored his third touchdown of the night with 30 seconds left to give them a wild 48-41 victory.
The Tarpons led 41-34 after three quarters. However, Collier quarterback Nico Boyce ran it in from seven yards to tie the game at 41 early in the fourth.
Charlotte quarterback Teagen Lipke played well, and Seven Bullock had a huge evening with four touchdowns. However, Lipke threw a key interception to Ricardo Reategui to end a threat, and after a three and out, Collier was able to drive 62 yards on eight plays, with Hincape providing the winning score.
Charlotte reached midfield in a last gasp drive, but Lipke fumbled to ice the game for the Cougars.
For Charlotte coach Cory Mentzer, it was a great effort on offense. He added he has a very young defense that he believes will figure it out over the summer.
“I’m proud of the kids. They fought hard all night. We have young guys learning positions, and overall we had some pretty exciting things to build on and work on all summer and into the fall,” Mentzer said.
Charlotte got off to a rough start on defense, allowing four touchdowns on the Cougars’ first four possessions as Boyce picked apart the Tarpon defense. Hincape scored on Collier’s first possession to cap a 12-play drive. Boyce also found Jesse Mikolinski and Hincape for touchdown passes and Diego Gonzalez added a 9-yard touchdown run.
The Tarpons were able to stay within reach with a touchdown pass from Lipke to Steven Bullock and long scoring runs from Jazzy McDaniel and Josh Carbajal to trail 28-19.
Boyce then made his only two mistakes, throwing picks to Bullock and Daveon Daniels, with both resulting in Tarpon touchdowns and a 33-28 Charlotte lead at the break.
“It took some time for us to settle in,” Mentzer said. “When you have 10 new guys on defense, they’re going to slowly jell together. I promise that over time, we’ll be much improved.”
After Boyce threw a scoring pass to Caden Hudson to give Collier a 34-33 lead in the third quarter, Charlotte took the lead back on a 16-yard scoring catch by Bullock (seven catches, 110 yards) with a two-point conversion making it 41-34, setting up the finish.
Mentzer said he was pleased with the offense, which he believes will only get better.
“We showed a lot of great things tonight that we can build on. We’re just going to keep working,” Mentzer said. “We have heart. For a bunch of young guys, with six incoming sophomores tonight, we showed heart.”
McDaniel had 116 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Lipke, who threw for 249 yards and four touchdowns, left little doubt that he was ready to lead the Tarpons. And even offered up the coach’s cliche.
“We had opportunities to make plays to win the game, but I think we did pretty good. We showed we’re here and ready to make big plays,” Lipke said. “I went through my reads and got the receivers the ball. We’re better, but we have a lot of work to do.”
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