By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Gateway opened the hit-other-people portion of football season by looking good in stretches, but not enough to get the win as Port Orange Atlantic won Thursday’s Kickoff Classic, 28-14, at the Ridenour Athletic Complex.

The Panthers were beset by mental mistakes and an inability to get the defense off the field in key situations.

“We made too many mistakes, like almost every play in the first half, and didn’t do enough good things,” GHS Coach Marlin Roberts said. “We’re trying to change the mentality around here, and that had me worried about what’s going to happen later this year.”

But, Roberts said Thursday’s game wasn’t all bad.

“We had some positives, we had some big plays on offense and I thought we came out of halftime and had a good defensive stand after we had already gotten down,” he said.

After Atlantic opened with a touchdown drive to make it 6-0, Gateway quickly answered in the first quarter by going 75 yards in 10 plays. Fullback Efrem Mitchell’s 45-yard run set up a 1-yard quarterback dive by junior Anthony Rodriguez. The PAT failed, tying it at 6.

But, the Sharks came back with 21 points in a little over a quarter. Atlantic converted three third or fourth downs on their next drive, resulting in a score, then it got the ball back on a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and scored again two plays later.

Atlantic scored on its final first-half drive, converting two more third downs.

In the fourth quarter, sophomore Isaiah Wharton followed a 37-yard run with a 17-yard touchdown scamper, and Wesley Escobar added the two-point conversion for Gateway.

Mitchell had 82 yards on eight rushes. On defense, Zack Smith, Jonathan Goldwire and Jarquis Dolphus had tackles for a loss, and Ian Stevens and Malik Richmond added sacks.

The Panthers open the regular season Friday at Poinciana at 7:30 p.m.