FOOTBALL

Preseason football: Golden Gate's offense clicks in rain-shortened win over LaBelle

Golden Gate High School

Golden Gate High School coach Mike DiGrigoli saw plenty of positive things in the Titans' preseason game at LaBelle on Friday night.

He just wanted to see more.

He wasn't unhappy with his team, just with Mother Nature as the Titans'  game was halted with 3:09 to go in the second quarter with Golden Gate leading 21-6. The teams sat through a delay of 75 minutes before the game was called.

"We came out and played fast, just as we planned," DiGrigoli said. "Guys were on point, we didn't make many mistakes at the beginning of the first half, so it was good overall."

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The Titans fooled the Cowboys multiple times with their misdirection plays and double-handoffs. LaBelle also had trouble early determining who was going to take the snap, as the Titans sometimes snapped it to quarterback Jay Herard and other times used direct snaps to running backs.

"The timing was good. Guys did a good job carrying out their run fakes," DiGrigoli said. "Just executing on offense, just an excellent job tonight."

DiGrigoli lamented the game's early ending, saying he would have liked to get more work in.

"We wanted to play the second half, work some of the kinks out," he said. "We were having some problems with our electronics, getting our video stuff working. We had some new equipment, and also working out some of the mistakes we did make in the first half and improve."

Herard looked good in the Titans' three series, completing 3 of 4 passes for 70 yards and running for 47 yards on four carries. Herard hooked up with a wide-open Nikki Liberal on the Titans' opening possession for a 49-yard score.

Running back Jouvensly Bazile made the most of his two carries, taking them both to the house. The runs covered 35 and 23 yards.

LaBelle was able to get on the board just before play was halted, using a nice drive of mostly inside runs. The Cowboys cashed in on Zion Gonzalez's 10-yard touchdown run. Just after the extra-point failed, the horn signifying a lightning delay went off. The teams were off the field for 40 minutes before returning to the field, but the horn again went off and the squads returned to the locker room for 35 more minutes before the referees called the game.

LaBelle coach Chris Siner was also disappointed the teams never got to get back out there, as the Cowboys had just scored and were showing signs of life.

“I thought we were pretty physical. They had a lot of speed, which we knew coming in," Siner said. "We had a tough time containing that in the beginning, gave up a couple big plays. Towards the end, I thought we got more physical, and thought it was too bad we didn’t have a second half.” 

Golden Gate travels to Immokalee for its official season opener next Friday, while LaBelle hosts Southwest Florida Christian. 

GOLDEN GATE 21,
LaBELLE 6

GG 13 8 X X -- 21

L  0 6 X X -- 6

First quarter

GG: Nikki Liberal 49 pass from Jay Herard (kick failed), 6:37

GG: Jouvensly Bazile 35 run (Augustin Morales kick), 1:29

Second quarter

GG: Bazile 25 run (Herard run), 6:57

L: Zion Gonzales 10 run (kick failed), 3:09