BY BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN (follow on Twitter @BrianMacWriter)
PALMHARBORSPORTS.COM
SEMINOLE — Sometimes a football team just needs a little bit of WD40 to knock the rust off. This was the case for Palm Harbor University on Friday night, as the Hurricanes stopped their early-game problems with coughing up the ball and began applying the football version of WD40 – they began forcing their own turnovers.
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The Hurricanes (1-0) survived that rusty first quarter without much damage and then proceeded to score 28 unanswered points to beat Osceola on the road in the 2023 season-opener — 28-14.
It was the first season-opening victory for the Hurricanes in eight years (2015).
The Warriors (7-4 last year/made playoffs) are a team PHU had only beaten three previous times in 16 tries dating back to PHU’s first season in 1997. It was a more dominating effort than the score indicated – specifically on defense, but it was hardly a perfect game.
One true surprise was the performance of a sophomore who had never played a snap of varsity football. Jake Rennert caught two lengthy touchdowns from junior quarterback Will Seibert and then had a pivotal late interception playing at cornerback. In the preseason, he wasn’t projected to be a starter at either position because of PHU’s amount of experience, but he made the most of the opportunity.
“(Rennert) has performed well at practice,” Palm Harbor head coach Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports.com after the game. “It was his first real game on varsity and to have two touchdowns and one pick is pretty impressive.”
Rennert was just excited about contributing for the first time.
“I was just playing some football, just having some fun,” Rennert told PalmHarborSports.com. “I think we already have a bunch of great receivers, but I think I can be in there, too. One of our corners got a pain in his leg, and I just went in to fill in for him on defense.”
The scoring opened when multi-dimensional Osceola junior Nate Gooden took off on a scoring run of 26 yards with about 7 minutes remaining in the first period. It stunned the Hurricanes, and then PHU fumbled again.
But PHU senior Jason Ice intercepted a pass about a minute after Gooden’s touchdown, and really momentum began to change from then on. PHU went on a 6-minute, 23-second drive and senior Gunner Fodor closed things out on the second play of the second quarter, punching it in from four yards out.
Only two minutes later, after Matt Gunn forced a fumble and Austin Vo recovered, Seibert hit Rennert for the first of their two touchdowns – this one going for 30 yards. They looked like they’d been doing this for years, yet it was the first time they’d ever connected on a varsity pass.
Then, a little less than two minutes later, senior co-captain defensive lineman Zavion Roberts picked off a pass and took it to the house – good for a 45-yard INT return touchdown.
PHU entered the second quarter down 7-0, but less than halfway into the quarter, they found themselves winning 21-7.
“As a captain, I just need to go out there and make some plays,” Roberts told PalmHarborSports after the game. “We have a lot of potential on defense. Our chemistry is great, and we all have a great time. If we really get the mistakes down and we get fine-tuned, there is no limit to make things happen.”
PHU’s stingy defense held Osceola to 44 yards total rushing in the game, much of it coming on Gooden’s early scoring run. Also, it forced four turnovers – three via INT and one via fumble. The Warriors’ passing game was held to 11-of-25 passing.
Leading the way (as usual) was senior Fodor, who racked up the negative-yardage plays and led the team in tackles. Junior Hayden Turley had a massive sack late in the game, senior Walker Danneman did negative-yardage damage, and we’ve already mentioned the young men who picked off passes and got the fumble. As usual, it was a collective effort.
“It was an outstanding job by our defense tonight,” Mullaney said. “We created four turnovers and had only two missed assignments. Our defensive staff (coordinator Matt Lepain and assistants Jon Adkins and Eugene Davis) put together a hell of a plan and our kids executed.”
The offense didn’t fair quite as well as the defense, but that had as much to do with Osceola as anything. Seibert threw for 91 yards and the two touchdowns to Rennert, and the receiver scored the lone second-half TD on a 39-yard pass.
“We beat a team tonight that is good and will win a lot of games this season,” Mullaney said. “We did something tonight that we haven’t done in a while and we beat a good team.”
For Osceola, leading rusher Nathan Carter (1,500+ yards last year, with 100+ and a TD against PHU) was out with an injury.
“Three years and he’s had 2,500 yards; it hurt to not have him but we knew that coming in,” Osceola coach Cody Montgomery told PalmHarborSports.com. “Hats off to them they did a heckuva job. Their defense is pretty darn good. They had some turnovers early and then we had three turnovers after that.”
Palm Harbor travels to St. Petersburg next Thursday for its lone Thursday game of the year. The Green Devils lost 17-14 Friday night to Tarpon Springs, a Sponger team PHU’s varsity beat in the spring. PHU beat SPHS last year in Week Two, but SPHS rebounded and made the state playoffs. That was arguably the best team the ‘Canes faced all of last season in its 6-4 year.
