By STEVE JACKSON
Three football teams from the South Shore Five are in the Florida high school football playoffs. Preparing for “second-season” road kickoffs at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 15, are 6-4 Spoto High, 7-3 East Bay High and 6-4 Sumner High. Lennard High at 6-4 and Riverview High at 2-8 did not receive playoff bids and have completed their 2024 football seasons.
The regular season wrapped up last week with hurricane make-up games. Spoto trounced Leto High in Tampa, 66-23, behind the offensive efforts of junior quarterback Nathan Richardson, senior running back Jaedyn Cartwright and the Spartans’ top defensive duo of sophomore Rome Freeman and junior Nasir Foster. Outstanding Spartan offensive stalwart senior Z’orey Cotton, due to an injured kidney on the first play of the East Bay game Oct. 25, missed both the Leto and the Sickles wins. Spoto head coach Keith Chattin said earlier this week that there is a slight chance Cotton could receive medical clearance for the playoff clash at Lakeland.
The Lakeland High Dreadnaughts are a formidable opponent for Spoto. Lakeland won the 5A District 6 with a 3-0 record while posting a 9-0 season mark, including a 28-0 victory over 7A Sumner High back in October. The defensive-minded Lakeland team also knows how to put points on the scoreboard. While holding opponents to 87 total points during the season, for an average of 9.7 points per game, Lakeland has scored 349 points, an average of 38.8 points a game. This compares to Spoto’s point total of 386, or 38.6 points per game scored, but allowing 282 points, or 28.2 per game.
The Spartans miss Cotton, but QB Richardson and RB senior Jaedyn Cartwright more than made up for Cotton’s absence in the rout of Leto. Richardson hit 8 of 11 passes for 289 yards in the air with five TDs. The stocky Spartan QB also added a pair of rushing TDs. Meanwhile, senior Cartwright toted the pigskin nine times against Leto for 115 yards and grabbed a 79 yard TD pass for a TD. Spoto also has a top flight receiver in junior Jesse Harden.
The Spoto Spartans have not been in the Florida football playoffs since 2014. If 8th and final seed Spoto can continue its good luck, it will meet the winner of the Springstead v. Gaither first round game on Nov. 22 in 5A action.
East Bay fell in lopsided action to Tampa Bay Tech last week. The TBT Titans romped East Bay, 54-19, and blasted Spoto, 42-7, earlier in the season. East Bay has now lost seven straight times to TBT. But head coach Mike Gottman’s Indians are seeded 7th in 5A and face #2 seed Edgewater High of Orlando. The Edgewater Eagles are 9-1 overall and 2-0 in district play with six straight home victories. Edgewater pummeled Freedom High, 56-0, and lost to only Jones High of Orlando, 31-21.
The winner of EB versus Edgewater is set to play the winner of 5A seed #3 Tampa Bay Tech versus seed #6 Sebring High on Nov. 22.
East Bay is a conservative offense per necessity, based on its players’ abilities. The Indians know they need to slow down Edgewater while putting enough points on the scoreboard to continue their good but not spectacular season. Edgewater is averaging 39 points per game and holding opposition to 9.9 points a game. A look at stats for EB shows a much more stat-modest squad. The Indians have tallied 268 season points for a per game average of 26.8 and yielded 224 points, or 22.4 per game. The math highly favors Edgewater, but the game is played on the field Friday night under the lights and not on paper nor by statistics.
East Bay, mainly through the offensive efforts of senior QB Rocco Boyd, senior running back Thomas Rieger and sophomore Carlos Lemons, put up 19 points last week against TBT on 182 total yards with 88 rushing and 94 passing. Lemons took one pass reception to the house for 75 yards. The flashy sophomore also was busy with TBT kick-offs, returning five for 166 yards. TBT’s offensive onslaught way exceeded that as the Titans, as usual, dominated the Indians. TBT juniors quarterback Darryn Jones and running back Isaiah Daniels shredded a game but over-matched EB defense. Jones accomplished 207 passing yards for three TDs and scored once rushing. Daniels scooted 160 yards on a dozen carries, scoring twice. The EB loss ended a six-game winning streak. The Indians need the offense as well as the defense to step up if EB hopes to continue its season Nov. 22 versus the winner of TBT versus Sebring. That means season-long stalwarts, such as junior Nasi Foster and seniors Xavier Ortiz and Kael Stewart, will have to turn up their defense skills a notch or two if they hope to continue their 2024 campaign or peel off the uniforms until next season or, for seniors, forever.
For the Lennard Longhorns and for the Riverview Sharks, their jerseys have already been peeled off. The 6-4 Longhorns, of head coach KB Belton, were undefeated through the first six games of the season. Then the bottom dropped out. The Horns lost their last four games of the season. The Longhorns have a dynamic passer-to-receiver combo returning next season in upcoming seniors quarterback Jacob Mobley and glue-fingered receiver London Green. Lennard doubled its win total from coach Belton’s first year. Now, it will be seen if an off season of work can push the Horns to the next level in 2025.
Riverview High, under coach Tony Rodriquez, compiled the worst won-lost record among the South Shore Five. The Sharks showed enough fight and determination to win two games in 2024.
The highlight of Riverview’s 2-8 2024 campaign is easy to see: a nail-biting victory over rival Bloomingdale late in the season. The Sharks’ only other victory of the season was over Middleton High of Tampa in the early stages of the season.
Next year, Riverview needs to put forth a stronger offense if it wants to improve its record and its standing in 6A-District 7. In the final loss to Bartow High last week, it was predominantly seniors, so the Sharks obviously need to develop some underclass impact during the off-season.
On offense against Bartow, Riverview was led by senior quarterback Rod Mack. Mack hit six of 19 passes against a furious Yellow Jackets rush. The Riverview QB carried the ball 12 times for 65 yards. Another senior, Andrew Lee, picked up 40 yards on five totes. Junior running back Kobe Holloman showed some good potential for next season, grinding out 13 yards and a touchdown on four attempts rushing. The meager receiver totals were all seniors: Isaiah Washington with four catches, and Julian Arthurs and Cole Berger with one each. Riverview’s defense is also senior-dominated. In the Bartow loss, seniors Randall Guzman, Elijah Lespinasse and Damien Laverde along with junior Juvandy Robinson played about as well as could be expected against a talented, playoff-bound Bartow. Riverview is in dire need of developing a more potent offense for 2025. For the 2024 season, the Sharks scored only 130 points a game and gave up 347 points. That pretty much defines Riverview’s 2-8 record with a per game average of scoring 13 points each game and yielding 34.7 points per game.
Keeping on their jerseys for at least another week, in addition to Spoto and East Bay, are the 7A Sumner Stingrays of coach George Selvie. Sumner, at 6-4, makes the short trip to Lithia for a re-match with Newsome High, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. The Stingrays nipped Newsome 17–14 on a late field goal by Sumner freshman Ryan Lydon earlier this season. Sumner is playing its best ball of the season now. The Stingrays won their third straight last week, beating 3-7 Hillsborough High, 29-14, to end the regular season. For more articles and photos by Frances Fedor about Sumner High, see this week’s newspaper and see ObserverNews.Net/.