SARASOTA — What was billed as a matchup of two of the top teams in southwest Florida quickly turned into a blowout at Riverview High School on Friday night.
Port Charlotte jumped on the Rams from the opening kick, scoring 37 unanswered points on the way to a 37-12 running-clock win in a Kickoff Classic preseason game.
“I think we had some opportunities that we took advantage of that are hard to recreate,” Pirates coach Jordan Ingman said. “I think in high school football, momentum is big, and it’s hard to recover from that.
“But I was proud of how our kids finished. One of the big telling things was that I wanted to see how we came out after half on offense, and we scored twice on one drive.”
The Pirates recovered their opening kickoff to the Rams as Xavier Shipley scooped up a short, bouncing kick at the Rams’ 22-yard-line. Riverview never recovered.
New Port Charlotte quarterback Logan Flaherty, a sophomore, opened a three-touchdown night on the first offensive play of the game as he hit senior receiver Justice Becerril for a 22-yard strike.
The Pirates would go on to score on their next two drives — on a 54-yard run by senior running back Ike Perry and another 14-yard strike to Becerril — to open up a 21-0 lead.
The mistakes didn’t stop there for the Rams as bad snaps and penalties stalled drives.
“We’re going to play a good team every week, and we can’t help them,” Riverview coach Josh Smithers said. “We put ourselves in bad down and distance. There were a lot of errors that we can control, but it’s not the kids’ fault. We have to do a better job of going through some of these situations in practice.
“But, I think there were some good things to build off of too.”
Senior athlete D.J. Johnson sparked the Rams offense on multiple occasions as he racked up 112 receiving yards on just three first-half catches, but a turnover on downs and several losses of field position meant those yards didn’t equate to any points.
While Riverview was wearing off the rust, Port Charlotte continued to take advantage.
The Pirates added 10 more points in the second quarter on a 49-yard rush by Perry and a 22-yard field goal by junior kicker Karsyn Barghausen seconds before the first half buzzer.
They kept their foot on the gas to open up the second half — scoring on a 29-yard keeper by Flaherty to trigger a running clock and bring the second unit on the field.
The Rams added two touchdowns — on passes of 11 and 18 yards from sophomore quarterback Logan Carillo to senior receiver Jaden Wheeler and senior tight end Jaden Key, respectively, but it was too late to make a difference.
“We had two touchdowns called back tonight and four we left on the field,” Ingman said. “That’s the kind of stuff we have to clean up. But I’m trying not to be overly critical because the kids played really hard. I told them tonight, ‘The biggest thing we want to see is that you play hard.’
“In a Classic, you’re going to have to clean some things up fundamentally, and there’s things we have to clean up. We have a rough schedule, and we’re going to have to continue to get better. But I’m really proud of the kids’ effort.”
KEY STATS: Edd Guerrier will surely be missed in Port Charlotte, but Perry made the loss easy to manage on Friday night. He turned 10 rushes into 175 yards and two touchdowns, with two more touchdowns (and several more yards) called back due to penalties. ... Flaherty kept the passing offense humming, too. He finished with 11-of-15 passing for 121 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and four rushes for 29 yards and another score. ... Riverview struggled to keep up on offense. Missing starting quarterback Anthony Miller due to a tweaked hamstring, the Rams rotated Parker Nippert (4-of-7 passing for 93 yards) and Carillo (8-of-13 passing for 89 yards, two touchdowns).
KEY PLAYS: Recovering the opening kickoff and scoring a touchdown one play later is tough to beat. Following that up by forcing a botched punt and scoring in a short field again two drives later made it easy for Port Charlotte to pull away.
QUICK HITS: The Port Charlotte defensive front gave the Rams fits all night. King Justice and Casey Hidalgo registered sacks while the Rams mustered just 13 yards from Johnson and Isaiah Belt — two 1,000-yard rushers last season — in the first half.
QUOTE: “I think (Perry) deserves a ton of credit. In this day and age, he could have gone somewhere else. We had a Division-I back last year, and he competed. Edd Guerrier had a great spring at Rutgers. I think Ike pushed him, and I think Edd pushed Ike. That’s what we hope that we always have, is the unselfish behavior and guys who care about each other who have stayed and believed in each other. I’m so excited for guys like Ike and (Juluis) Roach and those guys who have paid their dues. Now, the spotlight is on them.” — Ingman
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