BCS Downs Shorecrest Prep in Spring Football Action

There were some added bonuses for Bradenton Christian head coach Allan Gerber on Thursday night.

Gerber wanted to see three things out of his team in Thursday night’s spring football game against visiting Shorecrest Prep. Those three qualities, along with the Panthers’ resolve, were apparent to Gerber after a 41-28 victory over the Chargers.

"We went into spring with three goals," Gerber said. "We wanted our opponent to walk off the field and say, 'that was a tough football team that played with great effort and great discipline.' I’m pretty pleased with that. There was resiliency that we showed obviously with the opening play of the game (a 67-yard touchdown run by the Chargers’ Garrett Schulte). Our football team showed that (against Shorecrest) when they needed to show it. I’m proud of the guys, but at the end of the day this is just a springboard to our offseason conditioning."

Down 7-0 with 11:41 left in the first quarter, Bradenton Christian marched down to the Chargers’ 8. However, an incomplete pass on fourth down followed a 12-yard sack of junior quarterback Ryan Cobb.

With Cobb and the passing attack yet to get untracked, the Panthers relied on the legs of junior running back Avian Humphrey on their series of the game. Humphrey ran the ball four consecutive times, capping a four-play, 23-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown run on a 4th-and-1 with 29.5 seconds left in the first quarter.

The first of two interceptions by sophomore Austin Ferrer set up a 37-yard screen pass from Cobb to Graham Courter, which resulted in a touchdown and a 14-7 Bradenton Christian lead with 16 seconds gone in the second quarter.

Shorecrest Prep attempted to respond, but it came up short on a 4th-and-3 from the Panthers’ 7 after taking 8:59 off the clock. The Panthers ran the next 2:36 off the clock and entered halftime with a 14-7 lead.

Ferrer’s second interception with 8:24 left in the third quarter set up the second of Humphrey’s four touchdown runs. Humphrey, an incoming junior who finished with 122 yards on 19 carries, capped a 58-yard drive from a yard out with 5:12 left in the period.

Schulte showed that the Chargers were not out of the game yet on the next play from scrimmage with a 70-yard touchdown run. Schulte finished the game with 191 yards on 17 carries.

Just 25 seconds after Schulte’s second touchdown run, Cobb scored on a 66-yard run coming off a belly option play. A 51-yard touchdown run from Humphrey with 1:07 left in the third quarter gave the Panthers a 34-14 lead.

Shorecrest Prep quarterback Sam Grant threw interceptions on two of his first three passes before developing a connection with Ian Johnston-Schmidt. Johnston-Schmidt collected 123 yards, including touchdowns of 16 and 64 yards that put Shorecrest Prep within six with 5:33 left, on six receptions.

"I tell you one thing you guys don’t want to be in the room when we watch that tape, but it’s fundamental," Gerber said of the Chargers’ three scoring plays of 60-plus yards. "It always boils down to fundamentals. It starts with pad level. We’ll go back and look at the scheme. We look at the techniques that we used or didn’t use in those cases. We’ll find out what we need to do to get better."

Humphrey capped the scoring with a 16-yard run, and Lance Perkins essentially sealed the game by intercepting Grant with 1:13 left. Cobb took a couple of knees out of the victory formation, which hurt his rushing total, late in the game, but he completed 16 of his 33 passes for 158 yards.

"The expectations are high here," Gerber said. "We got plans to build another set of bleachers, a press box and continue to make improvements to our field. Our job as a football program is to continue to represent the school. There’a little winning component that comes with representing."