Playoffs mean Pirates ready to ‘SWAT’

EAST MANATEE — It all starts with the coin flip. The Braden River Pirates see that as the first play of the night.

“I hate to lose,” said linebacker Trevor Barnes, who makes the call when the Pirates are on the road.

If Braden River wins the toss Friday against Winter Haven in the 3A-Region 3 quarterfinal, you can be sure of one thing: the Pirates will kickoff.

“I don’t like standing on the sideline,” linebacker Keith Grafton said. “I want to get that first hit in.”

The football season has reached the playoffs. Time for the defense to take over.

Barnes and his crew say they are ready.

“Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Pirates defensive coordinator Mike Rupprechet said. “These guys feel that it doesn’t matter who we play, if we play our game, we can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the state.”

Winter Haven is 9-1 and ranked eighth in Class 3A. The Blue Devils have won eight straight and have pitched six shutouts this season and allowed a single touchdown in two other games.

The Pirates (6-4) defense allows an average of 15.8 points per game. They allowed seven last week against Palmetto and that came after the Tigers recovered a blocked punt at the Braden River 8-yard line. The frist string defense was finished for the night when Englewood Lemon Bay scored its lone touchdown in the Pirates 48-8 win on Nov. 6.

Right now, the Pirates defense is playing at a high-level, just as high as it was at this time last season when it stopped Palmetto in the regional quarterfinal and allowed only two scores in a season-ending loss to Arcadia DeSoto.

Rupprechet credits that to this being the Pirates second year in his defense, a swarming defense that begins with a 3-4 set, gives the offense three looks before the ball is snapped and can blitz from all 11 positions.

“It’s a defense teams don’t see often,” Rupprechet said. “It looks like it’s chaotic at times, but it’s really organized chaos.”

It took the Pirates nearly most of the 2008 season to understand their roles. Now, Rupprechet said, the players can teach clinics on the defense.

“I like it because it’s fast,” Barnes said.

“I like it because I can blitz,” Grafton said.

The operative words for the Pirates defense spell “SWAT.” That stands for: Stop the run, Win the first and third downs, Aggressive attack, Tackle, takeaways and touchdowns.

“Stopping them on first down keeps them in second-and-long and stopping them on third down gets us off the field,” Barnes said.

So, the goal of the Pirates defense is to get off the field. That is, after they get on the field first.

“We want to get out there and set the tone for the game,” Grafton said.