On Friday Sept. 9, the Sanford Seminoles faced off against the Treasure Coast Titans in an action packed game. The game shaped up to be a fantastic showing of Seminole spirit and the expertise of the Seminole football team. It began with our own Florida flyover by three sandhill cranes just as the national anthem came to a close setting the tone for this surprising game. 

At the close of the game, junior wide receiver, Chasen Johnson, said “The score was supposed to be worse than this, but every single person did their job and that’s how we won the game,” emphasizing that team work is what made this game successful. 

This is absolutely true as both the offense and defense were able to work to keep this game in favor of the Noles. 68 tackles were made during this game and 31 of them were made by two players working together. Luker Rucker threw 15 for 21,  210 yards that included 4 touchdown passes. 

One of these touchdowns came in the second quarter in a four play drive. The Seminole defense had just forced the Titans to punt after a sack to the Titan quarterback by linebacker, Jordyn Perkins. Although the punt was not returned and the Seminoles started from their 24 yard line, they quickly made progress passing the ball down the field. Tyrone Williams Jr. gained an eight yard pickup resulting from a Rucker pass. In the next play, Marvin Brown catches a a pass for a first down when he alluded the Titan’s defenses. Despite Rucker’s pass being blocked, he is able to run past the line scrimmage allowing for Seminole gain. A personal foul was called against the Titans pushing the Noles 15 yards closer to the goal line, and in the next play, Rucker is able to throw a touchdown pass to Darren Lawrence. The ambitious Noles go for the two-point conversion, and for a moment it looked like Lawrence wouldn’t be able to make it, but he managed to toss the ball over his back while being tackled for the two-point conversion

Despite great success, some mistakes were made. Seminole allowed the Titans back in the game when Rucker threw an interception towards the end of second quarter allowing them to score a touchdown. This was a common theme through the first half of mistakes that allowed the Titans to gain on the Seminoles. The titans were even able to score a safety, but in the second half the Noles came back strong to stop the Titans from making any further progress. 

Head Coach, Eric Lodge, says “there were some mistakes made early in the game that made it more interesting than it should have been, but we came back in the second half and that is what makes us a really good football team.”  He emphasized to his team that in the next week they will be working to clean up those mistakes because they can’t have that in the playoffs. 

Overall Seminole gave a really good showing of what Seminole Friday nights are all about: togetherness and showing the excellence of all of Seminole’s programs. The excitement of this game just showed what is to come in the rest of the season as we gear up to play Evans next week.