Heading into Friday night’s matchup with St. Cloud, Gateway head coach Marlin Roberts knew his young, feisty squad would have to play near-perfect football in order to have any chance of an upset. And while the Panthers certainly had some moments on both offense and defense, they were far from perfect -- dropping a 20-6 decision to the Bulldogs (3-4).
Things started fairly well for the Panthers (3-4), as they sniffed out a reverse on the first play of the game – stuffing it for a 10-yard loss. But on the very next snap, Bulldogs quarterback Logan King hit Alex Springs in the flat, and the junior speedster eluded two tacklers and raced 83 yards down the sideline. Two plays later, King found Gunner Freeman on a slant and St. Cloud took a 7-0 lead. On Gateway’s first play from scrimmage, St. Cloud recovered a fumble on the 32.
“I thought we would score another quick touchdown and then roll from there,” St. Cloud Coach Mike Short said. “But give Gateway a ton of credit, their defense held us out of the end zone and I can’t explain what happened, but we just simply couldn’t get anything done offensively.”
The Dogs did manage a 27-yard field goal from Daniel Elizondo after the recovery to take a 10-0 lead, but St. Cloud struggled the remainder of the half. While Short said it he couldn’t explain what happened without looking at the film, the view from the press box shed some light: in the first half St. Cloud had eight penalties for 60 yards, King was sacked three times for 42 yards, the Bulldogs gave up 18 more yards in tackles for loss and lost 10 more on a muffed punt.
Still, they were able to maintain the 10-point cushion, as the young Panthers returned the favor. Three times they saw promising drives in plus territory stall out. In the first quarter, they drove to the St. Cloud 28, only to be pushed back to the 35 on errant snap, and the drive ended on a sack. With 10:14 to go in the second quarter, a punt return set them up on the St. Cloud 36 but the Panthers committed three false starts on the next four snaps, watched a snap sail over quarterback Aristotle Span’s head for a seven yard loss and the finished the drive with an incompletion. Taking over on the 44 on their next series, Gateway went three and out with another penalty and quarterback sack.
Still the Panthers made a game of it late in the third when Span led Gateway on a 12-play, 80-yard drive -- capped by an 11-yard touchdown run by Nydrell Thigpen, set up by a 28-yard run by Thigpen and a 21-yard pass completion on a third-and-20 from Span to Gianni Maestre.
Taking advantage of a celebration penalty on Gateway after the touchdown, the Bulldogs got a great return out to their own 43. Going to a hurry up offense, King needed just three minutes to move 55 yards for a St. Cloud touchdown and a 17-7 lead that stunted Gateway’s comeback. Following a combination of runs and screen passes, TJ Griffin capped the drive with an 8-yard run.
“We have had a lot of offensive lineman hurt this year so its been easier for us to pass than run and that’s why we stayed with that game plan for the first three quarters,” Short said. “But we sensed they were getting a little tired so we went to the hurry up and started running the ball effectively.”
Following another defensive stop, St. Cloud went on another time consuming drive – picking three first downs and 46 yards on running plays before settling for Elizado’s 29-yard field goal and 20-6 final score.
“At the end of the day, I really don’t believe in moral victories and I know our kids don’t either, but I was really proud of how they played tonight,” GHS Coach Roberts said. “We fell behind early but never gave up and it was a one score game into the fourth quarter. We had our chances, but made too many costly mistakes to win the game. “But compared to the last couple of years, I think they (St. Cloud) knew they were in a fight.”
King finished the game 11-for-24 for 215 yards passing. Griffin rushed for 70 yards and caught 77 yards in passes. Springs caught three for 96 yards before leaving the game in the second quarter with a nagging ankle injury. Thigpen finished the game with 108 yards rushing for the Panthers.
In other county action, Tohopekaliga went to 4-2 with a 31-21 win over Lake Brantley. Celebration picked up their second win of the season (2-4) with a 35-8 win over Liberty and Poinciana went to 4-3 with a 31-7 win over Lake Region. Harmony and Osceola had their bye weeks.
