Defense Topples Offense in Florida Tech Spring Game

Brandon Ziarno and Antwuan Haynes - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

The Florida Tech football team gave their fans a glimpse of what the 2017 squad will look like, as they played their annual Spring game Friday night at Florida Tech Panther Stadium. The game was comprised of 85 plays, with the offense taking on the defense. The defense ultimately came out on top, 35-28.

“I thought it was a fairly exciting scrimmage, had some big plays, had some long runs,” said head coach Steve Englehart. “I thought a lot of people did a lot of good things and there’s still a lot of things to work from, as well.”

The defense was spotted 28 points to start the game and they could earn different combinations of points, depending on where they made stops and turnovers they forced. The offensive scoring system was conventional, but they had a long way to go to dig out of that hole.

Running back Antwuan Haynes, who finished with 87 yards on 17 carries.got the offense on the board with a rushing touchdown of 22 yards on the 23rd play. The hand off came from sophomore quarterback Brandon Ziarno, who alternated drives with freshman QB Trent Chmelk. Ziarno went 9-for-20, for 94 yards, while Chmelk was 8-for-18, for 79 yards.

Sekai Lindsay, who went to high school in Palm Bay, returns home after spending time at UMass. He made a big impression Friday night, highlighted by a 56-yard touchdown run that closed the gap to 28-14. He finished with 105 yards on the night.

“You saw not only the power he has, but the breakaway, to go score a touchdown outside of 50 yards,” said Englehart. “It was good to see him get back on his home turf and do that.”

The defense got a big play of their own when Chmelk fumbled and Renzo Salvador picked it up and rumbled into the end zone, making it a 35-14 game. It would be the only points the defense scored, but it would be the only points they would need.

The offense wasn’t done, by any stretch in this one. Chmelk would find Mason Wilfong in the back of the end zone with 25 plays remaining, cutting the deficit to 35-21.  That was set up by a nice catch a few plays earlier by Melo Guerrier, who was seeing his first action since being hurt in last year’s season opener.

The Panthers offense would get on the board one more time late in the game, helped by a couple defensive penalties, including a pass interference. It took a few plays, but Ziarno found Robert Foy from two yards out, making it 35-28.

They would get one more chance to tie, but just ran out of plays, allowing the defense to hold on.

“Really in every position, I think we have players that I think are near the top of the league,” Englehart said. “I like all of our guys.”

The team will now get some time off and Englehart said that he has some fundraising to do, some vacation time and he’s going to watch his kids in compete in some of the sports that they are into, before getting right back at it.

The 2017 football schedule should be released very soon and we will post that on our twitter account and on our website, as soon as it becomes available.



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