The fate of the 2013 football season wasn’t decided until the Monday night of the final week, when almost everything got turned upside down and East Bay was crowned champion for the first time in 40 years.
But, that also sums up the entire season in a nutshell: Many things that were expected to happen did not go as planned. Sometimes, this happened to the team’s benefit; many times, however, it did not work out so well.
PLANT CITY RAIDERS
Out of the three area teams, the Raiders’ season unfolded in a way closest to what we were expecting.
This team has talent up to the eyeballs, and we figured these guys would put on a show and make the playoffs. That’s exactly what they did, but they threw in some surprises.
Penalties were this team’s biggest weakness all season, and it must have been frustrating for the fans to watch. This offense can be terrifying when everything works, like it was Oct. 25, when Landon Galloway entered a state of football zen and the team demolished Strawberry Crest, 41-14.
And there was also the week when Plant City embarrassed Bloomingdale on the road, 40-0. That was just one week after Bloomingdale nearly beat Plant in a 50-40 shootout.
But sometimes, those penalties were too big to overcome. The Raiders ended up dropping a winnable game to East Bay, 19-13 in overtime, that would have won them the district championship outright.
And then there was the Sickles game, when penalties really did prevent them from winning. Just ask Tavares Chase, who would have scored the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, had it not been called back on a penalty.
Raider fans have to be happy with the record, though: 8-3 with a playoff appearance is a big improvement over last year’s 4-6 disappointment. And they also got a glimpse of some of the team’s future leaders, such as young guns Chase and Sawyer Dawson, who can make big plays week in and week out.
DURANT COUGARS
If last year’s undefeated season was a good dream, then 2013 was a nightmare for the Cougars.
It must be noted that their season was like an exercise of Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” It’s tough losing senior starters in the double digits, and it’s even tougher to do so when you face a schedule like that of the 2013 Cougars.
The first three weeks were marked by blowouts, but the quality of opponents was top-notch: Armwood, Sickles and Tampa Bay Tech. Durant seemed to find itself in its matchup with Plant City, despite losing 14-13, and followed that up with a 26-0 spanking of Gaither — a playoff team.
Taking away those first three games, the Cougars lost all their games by a combined total of 11 points: two one-point losses, one three-point loss and a six-point loss to Newsome. This is not a bad team but a bad-luck team.
Two of their three wins came by two points, though, as the offense struggled mightily to recapture its 2012 mojo throughout the season. It was able to replicate the good-old days in its win over Gaither and the 32-30 shocker against Hillsborough, but that was it.
Instead, it was the defense that kept these guys alive on the field. Anchored by the play of guys such as Dontriel Perry and Gabe Brown, the Cougars fielded a feisty, ballhawking defense that could shake the quarterback’s confidence.
None of these guys is focused on what could have been but rather on what they can do for 2014.
STRAWBERRY CREST CHARGERS
Usually, when a star quarterback gets injured, things don’t look good. But, in Crest’s case, they got a nice surprise in Austin Carswell.
Carswell took over after Tristan Hyde went down with a season-ending knee injury in the loss to Leon and helped keep this Chargers squad undefeated for an entire month.
Like Plant City, these guys have improved considerably from their 2012 iteration. But, this team came so close to its first-ever playoff appearance, even holding down the top spot in the district for quite a while and looking like a tough draw for anyone.
The icing on their cake seemed to be a 35-14 win over East Bay in October, when workhorse running back Chris Perez scored three touchdowns, and Josh Hyde gained 260 all-purpose yards by himself.
But, everything came crashing down over the span of about four days. It started with the 41-14 loss at Plant City and ended three days later with Crest’s elimination in the three-way playoff. All that, plus a date with Armwood, is never a good way to end a season.
On the plus side, things could have been much worse for this team had the players let Tristan Hyde’s injury dampen their spirits. He’ll be back under center in 2014, and should benefit from lining up behind a now fully-committed Cody McDaniel. Carswell did a good job filling in for Hyde and should continue to help Crest at the wide receiver and defensive back positions.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
LAST WEEK’S ACTION
Sickles 17, Plant City 10
Notes: It wasn’t the matchup for which Plant City had hoped. If you asked any player before the three-way playoff, they would have told you they’d beat Gaither twice in a row. But, they went to Sickles and played their tails off, anyway. This one ended up being a heartbreaker, with the Gryphons pulling ahead later in the fourth quarter and eating up the Raiders’ defense — and the clock — with star running back Ray Ray McCloud III.