Prep football | Palmetto stumbles against Punta Gorda Charlotte in Jason Spicer Jr.'s first start under center
PALMETTO -- After Palmetto's playoff hopes ended in Venice on Oct. 30 and the Tigers learned Jack Allison, the Miami-bound senior quarterback, would be sidelined for Friday's regular season finale with an ankle injury, PHS looked to the future.
When the Tigers returned to the practice field Monday, there was a new quarterback playing with the first team. Jason Spicer Jr., a sophomore who has played receiver for PHS this season, began his reign as the Palmetto signal caller a game earlier than the Tigers originally planned. And for his first test as a starter behind center, he was faced with Punta Gorda Charlotte, the No. 6 team in Class 6A in this week's Associated Press poll.
It was a difficult proposition for the first-time starter and after an uneven debut, PHS fell to Charlotte 28-3 in the season finale at Harllee Stadium in Palmetto.
"He settled in and really did some nice things," Marino said. "This was a great opportunity for him. It's a new era in Tiger football and he's the guy. He'll learn from this. It's valuable experience he got tonight."
Spicer completed 8-of-16 passes for 45 yards and two touchdowns, and ran the ball 16 times for 40 yards.
He was at his best on PHS' lone scoring drive early in the second quarter. Palmetto (6-4, 3-2) began at its own 25-yard line and Spicer immediately took off for an 18-yard run. Four plays later, he backpedaled and dumped a screen pass to running back Isyah Funk for a 26-yard pick-up, moving the Tigers to the Tarpons' 7.
Spicer ran the ball three times for 22 yards during the possession and completed 2-of-4 passes for 37 yards. The drive ended when he tried a fade to wide receiver Mykail Hillery and the defensive back got away with a questionable tug in the end zone while the ball was in the air. PHS settled for a 29-yard field goal by kicker Freddie Manriquez.
"We made too many penalties and did too many things wrong to stop our momentum," Marino said. "He gave us momentum. He gave us what we expected, the ability to drop back (and) if it's not there, run."
Charlotte (10-0, 5-0) also played without running back Elijah Mack, who is committed to South Florida. The Tarpons already have a postseason spot locked up, so they went with Maleek Williams, a junior with Division I offers, for the bulk of the carries in the first half.
Williams' second touch of the game went 42 yards into the end zone to give Charlotte a 7-0 lead. His fourth carry went for 58 and put the Tarpons ahead, 14-0.
Williams only carried the ball once in the second half with the game locked up and still finished with 130 yards.
The strong start for Charlotte dealt Palmetto its third straight blowout loss and after starting the season 6-1, the Tigers go into the offseason on a three-game losing streak.
"If you rank the 25 teams in the region we're probably fifth," Marino said. "That's pretty damn good. Unfortunately we have a brutal district and we played a brutal schedule."
So instead of a postseason tune-up in its final regular season game, PHS went ahead and thought about 2016, and there were shades of promise.
At the start of the game Palmetto played conservative with Spicer, slamming running backs Octavious James and Funk into the middle of the line for short gains. Once Spicer was comfortable, Marino let his new starter audible at will and run option plays. For stretches Friday, he showed why the Tigers are comfortable putting the future in his hands.
"The system, he told me next year we're gonna be running that and as soon as Jack went down I knew we were gonna be running it," Spicer said. "It was just to see how the game was."
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Prep football | Palmetto stumbles against Punta Gorda Charlotte in Jason Spicer Jr.'s first start under center ."