Rays Fall in Storm Shortened Opener

Marco Island Academy's wait for live game action stretched into week two of the regular season only to be cut short by a quarter Friday night, August 28 at Winterberry Park. By the time the game was called due to nearby thunderstorms near the end of the third quarter, the Rays had fallen behind 14-0 to SW Florida Christian. And that’s the final score that will go in the record books.

The Rays entered the game without the benefit of a spring game or fall exhibition game and were plagued early by false start penalties. They were able to clean those up as the game progressed and for three quarters went toe-to-toe with the King's, who opened their season last Friday with a 14-8 loss to Oasis. The Rays opening week opponent canceled late enough in the process that the Rays were not able to find another opening week opponent.

“I don’t think the lack of a week zero or week one game hindered us,” said Rich Costante, second-year Rays’ head coach. “I thought we were ready to play. Obviously when you have your first game, there are always kinks to work out.”

Overall, Costante was proud of his team’s effort.

“I was happy how we performed,” he said. “I think we played a physical game and that is something we have been trying to get the team to play since I took over last season. We also didn’t have a lot of cramps, which was nice to see.”

Costante felt his team’s effort was uneven.

“Our offense and defense looked good at times,” he said, “and bad at times. I think offensively we missed a few chances. We had holes to run through and went the wrong way a few times, and we also missed some open receivers. We easily could have scored 2-3 times if we corrected our own mistakes. Defensively, we blew coverage twice and we missed five tackles on their second touchdown. On a positive side, we did shut down their running game fairly well.”

He’s looking to clean up the penalties his team suffered, especially early.

“We had too many penalties and they came at bad times,” he said. “We would get some momentum, then get called for a penalty and lose the momentum. We need to keep our heads at times and not retaliate when the other team instigates it, especially the replay of down."

The replay of down came in the third quarter after the Rays had moved deep into King’s territory with a long gainer.

“There were six penalties on the play,” he said. “If we would have kept our heads, that would have been a big spark to our offense.”

The Rays were led offensively by quarterback Carter Good, receivers Matthew Morrison and Gavin Swift, and running backs Anthony Abin and Hutch Hamilton. Defensively, Haralabos Tsarouhas, Keven Martinez, Gavin Montgomery, Hamilton, and Abin were standouts.

The Rays (0-1) travel to face Gateway Charter on Friday, September 9 at 7:00 PM.

“I think we match up well with Gateway Charter,” Costante said. “They are a team who was ranked higher than us last season in the Sunshine State Athletic Association and they made the move over to the Florida High School Athletic Association independent league like us. So it will be a good measuring stick of where we are as a program. I told the team Friday night, a mark of a good team is they don’t lose back-to-back games. So we will see what we’re made of Friday."