PINELLAS PARK — On a field better suited for a slop fight, Oscee Calhoun scored the game’s only touchdown as Pinellas Park mudded its way to a 10-0 victory over Seminole in the 7A-9 district opener for both teams.
With the field soaked from an all-day rain that didn’t let up at game time, the miscues easily outnumbered the first downs while neither team completed a pass.
“I will take a sloppy, nasty, muddy win any day of the week over a pretty loss with a bunch of yards,” Pinellas Park coach Kenny Crawford said. “We’re into district play and all these games count so I’m going to enjoy this one.”
The Warhawks’ lone first down came on their second possession and they fumbled 11 times, losing five. The most costly fumble came midway through the second quarter when Pinellas Park nose tackle Raheem Patterson recovered a botched snap at the Seminole 1.
The Patriots capitalized on the next play as Calhoun scored on a 1-yard dive.
“Raheem and Kal-El Williams had their best games of their senior seasons so far,” Crawford said. “And it was the perfect time because I’ve been looking for this sort of effort all season.”
Patterson had four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a sack for a safety. Williams had three tackles for losses, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
The Patriots failed to convert several other scoring chances. In the first quarter Pinellas Park drove to the Seminole 20 on 12 plays but an incompletion on fourth down forced a turnover on downs.And in the second quarter Marcelus Ware’s 66-yard TD run was called back on a holding penalty.
“We’ve got to clean a couple things up there because we had some big plays even in this rain,” Crawford said. “Marcelus is a guy we want to get more touches to in the future because he can do some big things.”
The second half featured two safeties as Seminole punter Tanner Vaughn bobbled a snap in the end zone and downed the ball, and Patterson sacked Aaron Dever late.