BELLE GLADE – Glades Central football’s opening drive of the second half displayed both its grit and its wealth of playmakers.
Twice, the Raiders had long touchdowns called back for holding penalties, but they were undaunted, driving 85 yards to score on Zhaire Davis’ 4-yard run as Central defeated Martin County 17-12 Friday in their Kickoff Classic game at Effie C. Grear Field.
“That’s just adversity, man,” defensive back Daryl Goring said. “We fight against it. Rashawn Nembhard’s going to be great. Our team’s going to be great. We just have to build on what we have.”
What Glades Central has is youth and plenty of speed. Nembhard ran back a first-half kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown, then started the second half by taking the kickoff 80 yards to the house, only to have it nullified. Two plays after that, Davis’ 75-yard run was also called back.
“These are talented guys,” offensive lineman Cameron Hubbard said. “I love every single one of them. If we keep working every day and pushing ourselves, we’re going to be great.
“In the second half we really picked it up and got going. Those are amazing boys, they’ve been working their butts off this spring and summer and I couldn’t pick another team I’d want to be with.”
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Central is coming off a 10-2 season in which it won a first-round Class 2A playoff game. Raiders coach Omar Haugabook, in his third season at his alma mater, saw a lot of good to go along with some early-season mistakes.
“There’s some things we have to clean up, but as a whole, but we got better today,” Haugabook said. “We played a worthy opponent. We did a good job taking what they gave us on defense. Our biggest thing is to clean up the small things and continue to get better.
“If we get better we’ll be fine. This is a journey. We’re going to have the great times, we’re going to have some OK times, we’re going to have some not-so-good times.”
Quarterback Tawan Roux was 10 of 18 for 148 yards and no interceptions. He completed a 37-yard pass to Algernon Crawford in the first half and a 45-yarder to Ashton Gardner in the opening drive of the second half. Nembhard, Crawford and Gardner are all sophomores.
“We have a young football team and each game we get more experience,” Haugabook said. “We had a lot of explosive plays that kept us in the game. We got two turnovers that kept us in the game, one on special teams, one on defense, that gave us extra possessions.”
Martin County, which was 9-3 and a Class 5A playoff team last season, controlled the ball much of the first half, but the Raiders led, 10-6 at halftime thanks for two early forced fumbles, one which set up a Javier Flores field goal.
The Tigers held the lead for only 17 seconds when Nembhard ran the kickoff back 75 yards for a touchdown.
“We’ve been practicing kickoff return all week,” Nembhard said. “All my teammates knew their jobs and we just did the right thing.
“Our offense executed. We had trouble with some things that we have to work on, but we did a good job. This offense is capable of doing a lot.”
Goring is one of the few returning starters on defense and liked what he saw on Friday.
“We’re a young team,” Goring said. “The score should have been different, but we’re building on what we got. We’re going to come back next week and prevail.”
Glades Central 17, Martin County 12
Martin County 0 6 0 6 – 12
Glades Central 3 7 7 0 – 17
First quarter
- GC–FG Flores 26, 8:47.
Second quarter
- MC–Lily 17 pass from Louis (kick failed), 11:03.
- GC–Nembhard 75 kickoff return (Flores kick), 10p:46.
Third quarter
- GC–Davis 4 run (Flores kick), 7:40.
Fourth quarter
- MC–Cockrell 3 run (pass failed), 1:11.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING–Glades Central: Israel 4-62, Davis 3-24, Bradford 1-5, Salame 1-minus 10, Roux 5-minus 12. Totals: 14-69. Martin County: Ceaser 12-76, Louis 8-44, Walker 2-12, Brown 2-4, Cockrell 4-minus 10. Totals: 28-126.
PASSING–Glades Central: Roux 10-18-0-148. Martin County: Louis 8-14-0-113, Cockrell 9-13-1-78.
RECEIVING–Glades Central: Crawford 3-68, Flores 2-21, Gardner 1-45, Dennard 1-10, Joseph 1-7, Nembhard 1-2, Ingram 1-minus 5. Martin County: Lily 8-68, Taylor 4-61,m Jackson 3-34, Russell 1-18, Johnson 1-7, Escamilia 1-7.
TOTAL TEAM YARDS–Martin County 317, Glades Central 213.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Glades Central football flashes speed in preseason Martin County win