After falling 1-1 in the district with a loss to local rival Durant, Plant City narrowly escaped with a 31-24 victory over Plant last week and moved to 2-1 in district play.
Despite the crucial win, the road doesn’t get any easier this Friday as the Raiders are set to host Newsome, the district’s top seed and final remaining undefeated team in league play.
As the 8A District 10 standings sit right now, Newsome holds the top spot at 2-0 as Durant and Plant City both sit just behind them at 2-1. A win over Newsome would be a massive win for the Raiders, pushing them to 3-1 and second place in the district, assuming that Durant can continue their red hot season and move to 9-1 on the year with another district win of their own over Plant.
Newsome enters the contest as a strong opponent for the Raiders, with their lone losses coming against Bloomingdale in overtime and an undefeated Tampa Bay Tech. They also handed Durant their only loss of the season in a statement 17-7 victory in the Alafia River Rivalry.
The Wolves have allowed just 11.5 points per game while averaging 27.5 points per game, largely coming by way of a dangerous running back tandem in senior Jason Albritton and J.C. Roque. The duo has spearheaded a Newsome offense that has totaled 20 rushing touchdowns on the year and an astounding 238.4 rushing yards per game.
A win for Plant City will largely rely on the Raiders’ front seven keeping the duo under control, not allowing Newsome to control the clock and, in turn, the contest as a whole. Linebackers D.J. Haynes, Cole Highsmith and Rhet Conyers have been upperclass leaders on Plant City’s defense, pacing the team in tackles for loss and combining for 46 on the season.
It will take a herculean effort from the trio to knock off the Wolves, but the trio keeping Newsome in passing situations where they will be forced to put the ball in the air against a secondary led by Romello Jones and Ian Jolly will be the Raiders’ key to victory in their biggest game of the season thus far.
“We’re going into this game next week where if we win, we could have a three-way tie in the district,” head coach James Booth said following the Raiders win over Plant. “We put ourselves in a position where we have an opportunity and that’s what we want. Last week [against Durant] was not very good, almost embarrassing on our end. We didn’t showcase anything so we were all really itching to get back out this week and show what we could do. I thought that our kids played hard, they played physical, they played with pride again and that was good to see. It was good to respond that way and any time you’re playing a district opponent, you’ve got to do that. So we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re going into senior night, we’re going into Newsome, we’re going into another district game where we could potentially set ourselves up.”