Charlotte 35 - 21 Braden River

[Silver King]

Tarpon Coach Wade Taylor comes out of the blocks 3-0 and claims his first signature win against a highly touted Braden River squad (that had their way with us last season) even though it was their first game. They definitely beat us in the eye test, and played disciplined football. Charlotte had far more penalties, but when the Tarpons needed to respond to a score, or key plays in a drive, they drug the Pirate defense up and down the field. Tied 21-21 at half, they were gassed and the Fish put two more scores on them, one after a turnover with a short field. Game ended with the Tarpons taking a knee on the Porate 4 yard line.

I said if we were going to be in this we needed some of those long ball control Tarpon drives, and a couple turnovers. Turn out we only needed one, and we played turnover free. Went for some key 4th downs and made them - like they did against us last year, and we stuffed theirs like they did us last year. When I was chatting with the Coach Taylor early in the week, I said I was worried about their QB and returning O-line. He said, "Well you know, they might just have to worry about us this year."

Great watching first year OC and DC who my sons played ball with call great games tonight. Enjoying the new wrinkles in the Tarpon offense.

I think both Charlotte and Port Charlotte were lucky to face the top two district teams in their first games of the season, last I heard it was 10-7 in Palmetto close to half.

 

[gatorman001]

I fell asleep midway through the 2nd QT, with the score still 10-7, when I woke-up it was palmetto was up 20 something to 7. As I was rubbing my eyes a Palmetto LB stepped in front of a Port Charlotte pass and took it to the house to put the nail in the coffin for that one. I turned it off at that point and saw later Palmetto had won 43-7 I think was the final.

Like you I knew the Braden River QB and most if its OL was coming back this year. The unknown for me was how would Braden River respond playing its 1st game of the season against a Charlotte team with 2 games already under its belt. Also the Braden River JV team last year wasn't as talent rich as it had been in the past. I believe coach Marino for Palmetto and coach Shakir for Manatee have positioned themselves as the coaches the more talented kids are going to want to play for in Manatee county presently.......so for now I don't think your going to see the same kind of talented Braden River teams as you've seen in the past.

I saw the 21-21 halftime score and then later the 35-21 score and wondered to myself what had happened? Looks like the transition to the new staff has been seemless and the kids have responded in a positive way! Looks like the Palmetto game is going to be the next big game for your Tarpons. Although the following 2 weeks after that game could be extremely interesting as well. That Southeast 7-5 loss to Riverview drew my interest in as far as how'd they end up with a game with that score?

 

[Silver King]

Palmetto sounds like they haven't missed a beat, PC returned some key players including their multi-year starter at QB.

Braden River has some good looking / talented players, they have a big RB that will give folks problems. They didn't make a lot of first game misakes - but we had their D on the field a lot. Again Charlotte had some procedure calls, delay of games and a couple personal fouls. Braden didn't have near the penalties. Last year Charlotte put the ball on the ground and spotted them a 14-0 start.

I read today that the guys they lost went to Sarasota rather than Manatee or Palmetto. Tarps have a tough stretch of games starting with this one, but nice to get that first District W. This week we get to face the Number 1 RB in the nation, and a highly recruited LB and Corner.

Southeast / Revierview must have been a defensefest.

Football recruiting: Lehigh's Richard Young ranked No. 1 RB in country, has LSU, Georgia offers

Many athletes across Lee and Collier County have seen recruiting ramp up firsthand, with numerous athletes picking up Power Five offers.

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