Final Scores:
1st Half – Armwood 21, Tampa Bay Tech 3
2nd Half – Plant City 14, Strawberry Crest 0

WELP…
An interesting night to say the least. All four teams showed flashes of brilliance, along with complete breakdowns indicative of the season and experience level with turnover on rosters at key positions. If you were to have taken a look at JUST the stats (not scoreline) for the first game between Armwood and Tampa Bay Tech, you would have thought it was a runaway for the Titans. Instead, it couldn’t have been any farther from the truth. The second half featured some pretty exciting playmaking on both sides along with execution from QB-WR combos for the Raiders and Chargers that should give both programs’ from top to bottom plenty of momentum and positivity headed into the Summer workouts and beyond. The amount of talent hailing from the Classes of 2017 and 2018 their rosters will make you have to consider their future is about as bright as it gets.

“Stats are for losers. The final score is for winners” -Bill Belichick
Tried to come up with the best possible explanation for what was recorded on paper versus actually played on the field. It’s not meant to be derogatory whatsoever, so let’s squash that right now. But when you look at the fact through the first four series’ of the game, TBT had a 14:31 to 4:41 in time of possession advantage, had run 36 plays to Armwood’s 14, and had seven first downs to just a single first down for the Hawks, what are you expecting to see? Not the Titans trailing 7-3 after those first four series; not the Titans putting together back-to-back drives of 13 plays only to see 3 points from both in total. Tough night all around. If you had to come up with the shared positive for both teams is that you could have called this the quintessential “Spring game” from its nearly flawless execution one moment to its complete breakdowns the next. Which means repetition is pretty much the only thing standing in their way at this point all things considered and the youth movement from both teams have to keep gaining the experience they need.

They may be young, but they ain’t no babies y’all…
Although Armwood did not have any of the stats in their favor, who cares? It was 21-3 when the final whistle sounded, so it was business-as-usual for the Hawks. Quarterback Darian McNeal is a member of the Class of 2018 and is already showing some flashes of brilliance and as of right now (in terms of the bigger picture), the Hawks appear to be insanely talented once again and simply in need of their young guys to get the reps. Specifically, guys like Trevor Laurent (2016), Dedarallo Blue (2017) and Kevin Van Atta (2017) all have the absolute D-A-W-G in them and so do many others. Needless to say this team is on well on-course headed into their Summer.

Now THAT’s what I call comprehension…
Remember when we wrote a little diddy about Plant City LB Steven Ogletree and how he was being coached up at the time that the difference between really good and great is literally the difference of a few inches? Do you remember the repeated references to PC’s six losses and a tie coming by six points or less last season? Well, Ogletree jumped the Tate Whatley pass with 2 minutes to play in the half as ‘Crest had gotten the ball back trailing 7-0 and having moved the ball extremely well the entire night. That interception set up a Corey King touchdown to seal the victory with seconds to play, something the Raiders couldn’t do last season which also means the expectations are justified and possibly raised even more at this point.

You read well, young man…
Strawberry Crest Quarterback Tate Whatley (Class of 2018) was scorching hot completing his first seven passes for the game and unofficially going 10-of-12 for 81 yards and the interception. The Chargers Offense played the game like they were masters of the “beautiful game” taking what the defense gave them and Whatley was able to find another Class of 2018 member Chase Lawson in space for nearly half of those completions. Lawson, along with running back Bryce Blackmon form a nice core for the Chargers on the offensive side. Just like a few teams we’ve already seen in action before last night, if you do not come to play against this young squad, their talent is simply in need of confidence or better yet game experience and that’s pretty much it. The question will be not “if?” but “when?” as it pertains to ‘Crest if they can stick to the plan they are currently following.

The King and his court…
Plant City’s got a special talent in QB Corey King and paired with WR Antoine Thompson on the outside running sickly precise routes with his blazing speed this could get interesting. This tandem are both members of the Class of 2017 along with the aforementioned Ogletree. Put them all together with the likes of RB Markese Hargrove and another solid prospect at the MLB position in Cory Cotnoir, there’s some serious talent on the Raiders Roster. Make no mistake though, their confidence and their abilities will be put to the test and be tested virtually every single week of the season. They make it through this season with what they have coming back for the next one, but TWO seasons then something special really is going on over in the eastern section of Hillsborough County.