A round up of preseason FHSAA games and SSAA Week 1 games in Sarasota and Manatee county high school football games played on Friday, Aug. 14.
St. Thomas Aquinas 49, Cardinal Mooney 0
St. Thomas Aquinas entered their kick-off classic ranked as the No. 1 team in the state, and left little doubt after cruising to a 49-0 win over defending state champion Cardinal Mooney.
The game didn't get out of hand immediately. The Cougars got an interception from Marvon Harris on the Raiders' opening drive, and then held the Raiders to a field goal. The repeated the process a few drives later, with Jordan Sanders reeling in a pick, then again holding the Raiders out of the end zone.
The wheels came off midway through the second quarter, when an errant snap on a punt attempt resulted in a safety.
Ri'Chard
Bowe caught two interceptions for the Raiders shortly after. The first was immediately followed by a 54-yard touchdown run from Tyler Reid (Pitt commit), and Bowe took the second pick to the house himself.
Add a dominant first half from Wyatt Smith that saw three TFL and a sack, and the Cougars found themselves down 36-0 at halftime.
The second half saw intermittent play from both teams starters before the benches were finally emptied in the fourth quarter.
Cardinal Mooney takeaways
Cougars pass game has room to grow, and it should. Davin Davidson (Florida commit) had an uncharacteristically rough night, and his receivers did him no favors. Davidson finished the night just 3-of-22 for 19 yards with a pair of interceptions. Some passes were off target, but plenty of others were just dropped by his new receiving core.
"We have a lot of new pieces in there, and you saw that," said head coach Jared Clark. "We lost an incredibly talented team. And we've got some talented guys, they just haven't done it yet — and that's a really good team. When you play a team a really good team with guys who aren't on top of it on every snap, they'll exploit you. And that's what happened."
Davidson is as polished a quarterback prospect as any in the state, and the offense was very one-dimensional in the preseason bout. When the Cougars open up the playbook and Davidson builds on his chemistry with the new group, outings like this will likely become a distant memory.
Cardinal Mooney's defense has elite pieces. The defense gave the Cougars a fighting chance in the opening quarter, and they looked liked they belonged against a national powerhouse. But quick outs and turnovers put them on their heels before halftime, and it caught up quickly.
"I thought our defense came out lights-out," Clark said. "And then they were just on the field way too much in the first half. We had a couple bad snaps on punt which wasn't an issue all fall camp, and that gave up bad field position and points. All those things, we've got to get right."
Junior linebacker Travion Lester was exceptional in the middle, covering space well and getting downhill with purpose. The secondary limited big plays, and Notre Dame commit Julius Jones was held to just one catch. Up front, Kaleb Exume (Boston College commit) was in the backfield several times and helped keep gains up the middle to a minimum.
Don't count out the Cougars. Cardinal Mooney lost to St. Thomas Aquinas in last year's kick-off classic, then went undefeated in Florida before cruising to a Class 2A title.
While the score last year looked much different (22-14), so did these two teams. The Raiders are the clear No. 1 team in the state (over IMG Academy), and have arguably a stronger roster than last year. The Cougars are retooling after key weapons graduated, and did themselves no favors in the loss on Friday.
"I think that's a really good football team," Clark reiterated. "But just from memory from watching it, there's a lot of plays there to be made. And we did not make plays. And we made a lot of mistakes, some of them unforced errors. But again, if you do that against a team like this, they'll make you pay."
The Raiders are a tough barometer to measure off of, and it's why most teams in the state don't schedule them. The schedule gets much easier from here, and an honest shellacking may be what this Cardinal Mooney team needed headed into their first regular season game against Berkely Prep next week.
— Nick Wilson
Wellen Park 45, North Port 7
Sarasota 38, Hillsborough 24
There were some bad snaps. There were also several penalties, at least 100-plus yards of them. And some defensive mistakes. But Sarasota football also showed what it could be this season, especially as an offense.
The Sailors defeated Hillsborough 38-24 at Cleland Stadium on Friday, Aug. 14, during its preseason matchup headlined by three-star quarterback Hudson West, who has 21 offers. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound junior had four touchdowns on Friday, passing for three in the first half and adding a rushing touchdown in the fourth.
"We were able to run the football," head coach Amp Campbell said. "We protected Hudson. We didn't turn the ball over besides the punt return. We scored in the red zone. I felt like our guys offensively was effective. But there are a lot of things that we've got to clean up defensively."
Following a run-heavy start — led by running backs Darrell Yarborough and Cameron Houston — the Sailors found the end zone with 2:16 left in the first. West threw a pass to receiver Jayden Rivers for a 32-yard touchdown.
On the next drive, after senior Preston Weiser recovered the ball on Sarasota's punt return, Houston scored on a 10-yard run, putting the Sailors up 17-6 with 7:37 remaining in the half.
But it got messy from there. Hillsborough scored on one-play behind a Terriers' deep ball as Sarasota recorded four penalties. Some bad snaps also forced West to scramble.
To open the third quarter, junior receiver Evan Larrick caught a deep pass from West for a 68-yard touchdown.
"It was sloppy football," West said. "It wasn't our football. So, I feel like in the second half, me and Evan Larrick kinda got on the entire team, and we were like, 'Guys, we're so much better than this. We can play better than this and we know that.' So, we came back in the second half...I was really proud of how we responded."
After Larrick caught another pass on 3-and-12 for a 40-yard gain, receiver Julian Wilcom took it the last 10 yards with 3:10 left in the third. Then, at the beginning of the fourth, West ran for 1-yard after a slow march downfield.
Campbell said Friday was a very good display of how Sarasota can spread the ball around this season.
"Our offense right now at any given time," Campbell said. "We can throw the ball to Jayden Montgomery. We can throw the ball to Jayden Rivers. We can throw the ball to Julian Wilcom. We can hand the ball off to Cameron Houston. We can hand the ball off to Darrell Yarborough. So, we have so many weapons. We can score at any given time."
But while the head coach said the preseason game went as expected, Campbell also knows there's a lot to do on Monday. He knows that if Sarasota made those same mistakes against a more challenging opponent the Sailors would've have been beaten without question.
Sarasota takeaways
Clean up the penalties. Sarasota gave up over 100 yards in penalties on Friday. The Sailors' offensive and defensive line jumped early, and players were called for holding. Campbell acknowledged his team cannot turn those mistakes into a trend. "That would get us beat against a good football team," Campbell said. "There's a lot of things that we've got to correct. We got to make sure our guys are a little more disciplined and a little bit more aware of what's going on. We can't retaliate when guys do crazy things to us."
Potent offense. Led by Hudson West, there are a lot of ways Sarasota can score. Darrrel Yarborough and Cameron Houston shared running back responsibilities on Friday, making several key plays to push the Sailors down the field. Sarasota also boasts junior Julian Wilcom — who transferred from IMG — junior receiver Evan Larrick, junior receiver AJ Heater, senior wideout Jayden Rivers and sophomore receiver Jayden Montgomery. If Sarasota can clean up the penalties and some defensive mistakes, its offense could be one of the best in the area.
Make better tackles. Sarasota struggled to make open field tackles. Hillsborough had huge runs and scored twice on deep balls that turned into one-play drives. Campbell said his team will do drills on Monday to tackle better after his players' preseason performance.
— Emma Moon
Port Charlotte 35, Riverview 27
Bruce Blanden rushed for 196 yards and Logan Flaherty scored four times as Port Charlotte held on to beat Riverview 35-27 in the Kickoff Classic on Friday.
Blanden had a 44-yard run to start the game, which set the tone for the evening. Blanden scored on a five-yard touchdown run during Port Charlotte's first possession to give it an early 7-0 lead.
Riverview came right back as Logan Carrillo hit Miles Przekwas on a 46-yard touchdown catch to tie the game.
Port Charlotte got a break when a fumbled snap on a point gave it the ball inside the Rams 5. Flaherty plunged in from the one to give the Pirates a lead it would never relinquish.
Another Flaherty score with seconds left in the half made it 21-7 and things looked great for the Pirates as it was to get the ball to start the second half.
Riverview surprised the Pirates with an onside kick the Rams recovered. Carrillo scored on a nine-yard run to make it 21-13 after missing the point after.
As the Pirates did all night, they countered. Blanden ground out huge chunks of yardage and Flaherty finished it off to make it 28-13 late in the third.
With seven minutes left, Carrillo hit Trenton Huffman on a fourth-down slant and run, 46 yards to the house. Huffman scored the two to make it 28-21.
But Flaherty broke the Rams back moments later as he went 76 yards for the score. Carrillo hit Huffman again for a score with two minutes left, but Port Charlotte ran out the clock.
Riverview takeaways
The Rams were resilient. Every time it seemed like the Pirates got two scores ahead and threatened to break the game open, the Rams found a way to get back in the game. An onside kick, Carrillo touchdown passes to Huffman, and even an onside kick to start the second half. The Pirates just couldn’t shake them leaving both Port Charlotte coach Jordan Ingman and Mark Cristiani to praise the effort.
Riverview has two really good quarterbacks. Carrillo had 207 yards passing and three touchdowns. So while he seems to have the inside track on the starting role, Cale Cowart had some flashes as well. Cristiani will not alternate quarterbacks the way he did Friday, but at least he knows his offense won’t shrivel and die if Carrillo goes down.
Rams will be able to run the ball after all. The Rams have a nice one-two punch in Michael Peterson and Justin Flores to make up for it a little bit. Peterson had 12 carries for 60 yards, while Peterson added 20 yards. This was Port Charlotte. If these two can get rolling in the regular season. The Rams can have confidence running the football.
— Chuck Ballaro
Venice 72, Gulf Coast 7
VENICE — Mike Blakely caught four touchdown passes as the host Venice Indians humbled visiting Gulf Coast, 72-7, on Friday night at Powell-Davis Stadium in the Kickoff Classic for both teams.
The freshman Blakely was on the receiving end of scores covering 28 and 8 yards, both coming from Indian quarterback Mason Polley, in the first and second quarters. In the fourth period, with a running clock, Blakey caught scoring receptions of 11 and 65 yards from quarterback Terrell Jones.
John Peacock’s team also got three rushing scores from Ira Dale Jr. as the Indians opened up a 30-7 lead after the first quarter. Dale scored on runs of 13, 2 and 47 yards; Venice’s offense was so efficient that the green and white wasn’t forced to punt the entire game.
Top recruit Tyree Mannings Jr. returned a kickoff 67 yards for a score while also catching three passes for 40 yards and rushing three times for 62 yards. Venice’s special teams also pitched with a Ky’mani Reed block of a Shark punt in the first quarter. Desire Kmit recovered the ball in the Gulf Coast end zone for the score and 7-0 lead early in the first.
Following scores by Dale and Blakely, a Gulf Coast snap through its end zone resulted in a Venice safety and 23-0 lead. On the ensuing kick, Mannings broke several tackles en route to his 67-yard score. Dale’s 2-yard TD was followed by a 4-yard score by running back Bryce Bigelow and Dale’s 47-yard tally, making the score 58-7 at halftime.
Venice takeaways
Tyree Mannings a factor. Venice’s four-star recruit had a relatively quiet night, though he did return a kick following a Venice safety 67 yards for a touchdown. Mannings caught three passes for 40 yards and carried the ball three times for 62 yards. But what was apparent was his ability to break tackles, a result of time spent in the weight room. Venice head coach John Peacock said Mannings has put on 25 pounds, bringing his weight close to 190. “They’re going to have to figure out how they’re going to play Tyree,” he said. “We don’t want to show everything in the kickoff classic, but he’s phenomenal. You can tell that the weight room made it a little different breaking those tackles tonight.”
Blakely steps up. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the game was the play of freshman wide receiver Mike Blakely, son of former Manatee High star Mike Blakely. The 5-foot-11, 165-pounder caught scoring passes of 28, 8, 11 and 65 yards. “Blakely reminds me a lot of (Mannings),” Peacock said. “He’s a stud. He’s going to be a five-star national recruit guy. With Blakely and Bryce Bigelow and Jayvian Hoffmann, (opponents) are not going to be able to focus on Tyree all the time.”
QB job still up for grabs. The Indians used junior Noah Patton, freshman Mason Polley, and senior Terrell Jones under center. Polley and Jones each threw two touchdown passes, but Peacock indicated that he needs to see more from all three. “I’d like to have a solid starter, but no one’s really separated themselves yet,” he said. “We got to find someone that’s going to be cerebral and make the throws. Just got to give our guys a chance. There was a lot of stuff that was late tonight, a lot of stuff that was underthrown.”
— Doug Fernandes
Trinity Christian 42, Manatee 7
BRADENTON — For a team attempting to atone for an uncharacteristic 6-7 season in 2025, the Manatee Hurricanes fizzled out on the launching pad to start 2026.
The Trinity Christian Conquerors of Jacksonville rolled into Joe Kinnan Field at Hawkins Stadium and past the Hurricanes.
The Conquerors, who are the class of Class 1A teams after winning nine state championships, racked up 473 yards in total offense. Trinity Christian scored on its first three possessions of the game on drives of 86, 77 and 90 yards.
“They hammered our butts,” Manatee head coach Jacquez Green said. “They have a great program. But that’s the reason we wanted to play them. This is the kind of game we need to see where we’re at. It’s good we saw a team like this.”
The Conquerors moved the ball at will, piling up 248 yards rushing and 225 more yards in the air.
“We left their offense on the field too long,” Green said. “We had opportunities early in the game, but we failed to capitalize.”
Manatee’s lone score came on a 40-yard scamper by junior running back Caeden White with 12 seconds remaining in the first quarter. It was all Trinity Christian after that.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Class 5A Hurricanes when they open the regular season next Friday night at another perennial state powerhouse in Tampa Plant. Manatee has won five state championships, the last in 2011, and Plant has claimed four state crowns.
Manatee High takeaways
Caedon White will carry the load and the pigskin. White wound up with 90 tough yards on the ground Friday night. He broke six runs for more than 50 yards as a sophomore last season. The Hurricanes lost another explosive runner from last season in Keith Smith, who transferred to the IMG Academy for the 2026 season.
Nolan Downes will find better days ahead. The sophomore quarterback, in his first season with the Hurricanes after transferring from IMG, was under constant pressure and sacked four times by the Conquerors. He completed 8-of-19 passes for 95 yards. Downes is the younger brother of former Booker High star quarterback Ryan Downes, who is in his sophomore season playing for Cornell University.
Hurricane receivers need to find the handle. The receiving corps is considered one of Manatee’s strengths. Senior Tavares Powell, a transfer from Southeast High, and junior Elijah Christian and senior Deno Dalacas have all received college scholarship offers. But the group struggled on Friday. “We dropped way too many balls,” Green said. “Some people rise to the occasion and some people don’t. They all have what it takes to bounce back.”
— Jim Brockman
St. John Neumann 50, Bayshore 13
BRADENTON — Week 0 games are usually sloppy and Friday night at Bayshore was not an exception.
The host Bruins and visiting St. John Neumann Celtics combined for 18 penalties for 165 yards in Neumann’s 50-13 victory at Balvanz Stadium.
It was a game also marred by chippy play and numerous delays for cramps as players continue to work into regular-season shape. It was also a contest that featured several big plays, most of which came from the Celtics.
Leading the way was junior receiver Jackson Lee, who caught six passes for 100 yards and three touchdowns.
“I can’t say enough great things about him,” Neumann coach Chris Maragos said of Lee. “He’s a tireless worker, 4.3 student, does everything you ask. Type of kid you want to marry your daughter. His future is so bright and we’re lucky to have him. He’s a tremendous asset to our team.”
Both head coaches in the game are former NFL players in their second season at their respective schools.
Bayshore coach Ace Sanders is a Manatee High School alumnus who spent two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Maragos, a Wisconsin native who played for the Badgers, earned two Super Bowl rings during his eight-year NFL career.
Bayshore takeaways
Defense is solid. Despite the final score, Bayshore’s defense showed some promise, recording three sacks and three tackles for loss. But mental mistakes plagued the Bruins. “I expect a lot of good things from our defense,” Sanders said. “We pulled a lot of our starters in the second half because we started to get dinged up. You saw a lot of young guys out there in the second half flying around trying to figure it out. But I expect them to be a real solid group.”
More discipline is needed. The nine penalties, a third of which were dead ball fouls, frustrated Sanders, but he knows they’re correctable mistakes. “They need more reps and have to come to practice with a little more focus,” Sanders said. “They just have to dial in. They were more excited about being on the field than doing their assignments. They were happy to be here and gave good effort, but there were a lot of mental, bonehead mistakes, and that comes with reps and more time spent together.”
The chippy play will also be addressed. “As coaches, we have to be mindful of the work we have to do,” Sanders said. “It’s football. It’s gonna be chippy, it’s gonna be a competitive environment. Kids are gonna fly around and trash talk, we have to be there to reel them in and tell them to keep it between the lines and keep it football.”
The rebuild continues. The Bruins won just one game in 2024 but showed a lot of improvement in their first season under Sanders, going 5-7. They hope to increase that win total this season. The Bruins open the regular season at Sarasota next Friday and freshman quarterback Jake Carr is expected to start. He was 7-of-17 for 37 yards and two interceptions on Friday. “Playing with a freshman quarterback starting off, there are gonna be a couple bumps,” Sanders said, “And that’s not to take anything away from St. John Neumann. That’s a really good team.”
Saint Stephen's 50, Bishop McLaughlin 0
BRADENTON — St. Stephen’s Episcopal head football coach Chris Valcarcel was happy with his team's blowout win over Bishop McLaughlin at the Moore Athletic Complex at Turner Fields to start the season.
Despite some sloppiness in the second half, the Falcons (1-0) pulled away with a 50-0 win over the Hurricanes (0-1). St. Stephen’s will return to action at home as they welcome Hudson High School on August 21.
“I thought that tonight was really good for us and the guys felt the same,” said Valcrcel. “We had some mix ups on offense that we can work on to get better. Defense played like they were supposed to and they were lights out. We have a lot of returners on defense and some new guys that stepped up and score and I was very excited about that. Our speed was significantly faster and stronger than last year and we had a great summer workout for it that really showed.”
The first quarter was highly focused on sophomore quarterback Steven LeBlanc and freshman running back William Roseboro Jr. After LeBlanc completed passes to junior Luke Ziegler and freshman Dion Donker, Roseboro Jr. ran in for a four-yard touchdown for the first score of the drive.
Defense would then play a key factor for the Falcons as senior linebacker Zach Bonisch seized the opportunity with a fumble recovery to end the first quarter.
As the second quarter commenced, sophomore Simeon McBride landed an interception before LeBlanc extended the lead with three touchdown passes to Donker (35 yards) and seniors Nate Schueller (12 yards) and Levi Roughton (55 yards with a lateral from Fischer) to end the first half with the Falcons up 28-0.
Going into the third quarter, LeBlanc found Donker for his second touchdown catch for 70 yards, forcing running clock before junior Joey Seubert would ran in a five-yard score to make it 43-0.
The Falcons added one final touchdown to make it 50-0 as Roseboro Jr. would run in for a 15-yard touchdown down before the game ended.
Saint Stephen’s takeaways
LeBlanc laser focused. LeBlanc completed nine of his 17 passes for 213 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. He joined St. Stephens after transferring from IMG Academy. “I thought Steven did a really good job with his short game” said Valcarcel on LeBlanc. “He just have to keep working on his long game and make sure it’s there.”
Clean up the penalties. Even though they shut out Bishop McLaughlin, penalties played a negative part in St. Stephen’s playing. They endured 10 penalties with six of them being in the first half, mostly on offense where they had seven holding penalties.
Roseboro rising. Although he faced some minor injuries, Roseboro Jr. was able to finish the game in success. He would finish with two touchdowns on six rushes for 61 yards.
— Pat Clines
Lakewood Ranch, Moore Haven
Braden River, George Jenkins
Palmetto 37, Lake Gibson 6
Parrish Community, St. Petersburg
Sunshine State Athletic Association
Bradenton Christian 44, First Academy Leesburg 22
Out-of-Door Academy 26, Indian Rocks Christian 7
Sarasota Christian 50, Gateway Charter 0
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Football Roundup: Venice dominates, Cardinal Mooney routed, Sarasota holds on
