Young Pirates contribute in district win over North Port

Just a few weeks ago, Robert Goecker was immersed in Braden River’s junior varsity season.

Injuries picked up in the varsity team’s victory over Sarasota caused Pirates head coach Curt Bradley to call up some JV players last week.

Goecker was one of them.

On Thursday against North Port, the sophomore sped around Braden River’s wall of blockers during a punt return in the first quarter.

The 48-yard punt set up a short field for the Pirates’ explosive offense to score — which it did on the very next play.

Braden River (5-1 overall, 4-1 district) didn’t slow down after that, cranking out a 52-14 victory over North Port.

Goecker made his varsity debut in last week’s rivalry victory over Lakewood Ranch. He received advice from upperclassmen on relaxing heading into his debut.

On Thursday, it worked again as he followed the punt return with his second touchdown in as many games since the varsity promotion.

“It feels so good to be out here finally playing varsity,” said Goecker, who scored on a 20-yard touchdown reception late in the game. “I’m just thankful to be out here with all my teammates.”

While Goecker supplied a huge punt return, Deshaun Fenwick, a South Carolina commit, finished with 217 rushing yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns in two quarters.

“Grown man,” Bradley said when asked to describe Fenwick. “He’s 6-foot-1 1/2 and 215 pounds, and not a lot of people want to tackle him.”

Wide receiver Knowledge McDaniel tallied four catches for 148 yards, while quarterback Bryan Gagg completed 9 of 13 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns.

Gagg’s final pass was a 78-yard touchdown to McDaniel with eight seconds remaining in the first half.

That put the Pirates up 45-0 at halftime.

“We knew they were going to be done for the game coming out of halftime,” Bradley said. “There’s always work to be done. There’s nothing negative against North Port. Nothing like that. In the first half, we always play like it’s to win the football game. In the second half, we got everybody in the football game.”

In those first two quarters with the starters playing, the Pirates ran 37 offensive plays and scored six touchdowns.

Cam White (17-yard receiving touchdown) and Craivon Koonce (23-yard rushing touchdown) also scored in the first half.

A key facet to the offense humming along was the line play with Brendan Bengtsson, Daniel Galvin, Luke Andrews, Zach Moore and Austin Oberlin starting against North Port.

“They’re the engine, if you want to call it, to the offense,” Bradley said.

One aspect of Thursday’s game that was different came at the end.

The customary postgame handshake line didn’t occur. Bradley said it was a county decision.

“They’ve got a class program and we think we’re a pretty classy program,” Bradley said. “Unfortunately it didn’t happen, but we do what we’re told and we move on.”

Manatee County supervisor of athletics Jason Montgomery said it was a mutual decision at the request of Sarasota County.

Braden River’s victory means the Pirates need Palmetto to knock off Venice on Friday to set up a three-way tiebreaker for the district title.

This season, that tiebreaker would come down to the team with the highest points average. Braden River led all three teams with 41.2 points per game coming into this week.

The Pirates’ total could fluctuate a bit in the next week, with games against Sarasota Booker (Monday), St. Pete High (Friday) and Clearwater (second half on Saturday) looming.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Young Pirates contribute in district win over North Port."