Pirates conquer Seahawks 57-14
It seemed like every time Port Charlotte touched the ball it was gaining eight to 10 yards.
That was the kind of night it was for the Cape Coral Seahawks as the Pirates blew the game open with 34 unanswered points in the first half to cruise to a 57-14 victory in the District 6A-10 opener for both teams.
Ernest Harvey returned the opening kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown and Brennan Norus had 141 yards rushing on 16 carries and two touchdowns in one half as Port Charlotte quickly turned a 14-14 tie into a rout..
Harvey, Norus, quarterback Mike Innello and Marquell Platt each scored twice for Port Charlotte, which gained all its 338 yards of offense on the ground, attempting one pass all night.
For Pirates coach Jordan Ingman, it was two weeks of built-up frustration.
“It’s been an intense two weeks of practice and our kids came out from the opening bell and really played hard,” Ingman said. “The effort was outstanding.”
Seahawks coach Larry Gary is running out of excuses for his young team.
“We made some plays, but they physically beat us. I’m getting tired of saying we’re inexperienced because we have a few games under our belts,” Gary said.
It started quickly for Port Charlotte. Harvey took the short opening kickoff on the run and burst through the middle to get the Pirates going just 11 seconds into the game. Following a short punt the Pirates (2-1, 1-0) gave Cape a heavy dose of Norus, who scored from seven yards out to make it 14-0 little more than two minutes into the game.
Cape, to its credit, hung in there. Quarterback Maurice Flournoy drove the Seahawks down the field and scored on a short run to cut the lead in half. Following a fumble recovery by Kristopher Reaves, Cape used trickery as Flournoy lateralled it to Isaac Stevens, who lateralled it back to Flournoy, who went down the left side on a 46-yard scoring run to tie the game late in the first quarter.
After that, it was all PC as the Seahawks couldn’t stop the run, especially up the middle.
Mike Innello scored late in the first quarter to give the Pirates the lead for good, then blew the game open as Marquell Platt scored twice and Norus and Harvey again found the end zone to make it 48-14 at halftime.
The Pirates added a safety and another Innello touchdown in the third quarter, forcing a running clock for the remainder of the game.
Hunter Bontrager concluded the scoring for Cape (1-2, 0-1) on a short touchdown pass from Flournoy midway through the fourth quarter.
Isaac Washington led Cape with 72 yards on 14 carries as the Seahawks gained just 220 yards of total offense.