College Football Arrives In Brevard With First Scrimmage
By Ed Pierce // September 16, 2012
Panthers Down Florida Tech 17-14
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BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – The good thing about Florida Tech’s first-ever college football scrimmage at Palm Bay High School on Saturday night is that nobody really lost.
In an interesting intrasquad matchup with Head Coach Steve Englehart’s team split into “Florida Tech” wearing the school’s new away uniforms and “Panthers” wearing the new home uniforms, the “Panthers” squad emerged with a 17-14 win.
But because it was just a scrimmage, Florida Tech’s 100-plus players on the roster were the real winners.
“I think we were conditioned to play this game. We didn’t have anyone sucking wind or anyone with cramps. We’ve conditioned them and practiced hard,” Englehart said. “We’ve ran them and played a lot of live periods where we’re running full live scrimmages like a game. We’ll continue to build up our fitness levels and remember we’re running a marathon, not a sprint. We need to make sure we’re doing everything to prepare for September 2013.”
After playing through a scoreless first half with few mistakes, the second half of the scrimmage was a wide-open affair with each squad opening up on offense scoring 31 points.
The Panthers broke the 0-0 tie by capping off a five-play drive with Kurt Krier’s 34-yard field goal at 4:28 remaining in the third quarter.
Lead grows
In the fourth quarter, Jomo Daniels’ 2-yard run and Krier extra point at 11:05 gave the Panthers a 10-0 lead. Three and a half minutes later, freshman quarterback Dan Masteller threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Scott Parmer boosting the Panthers advantage to 17-0 with just 7:28 remaining to play.
But the Florida Tech squad came roaring back, scoring 14 unanswered points, including fullback Juan Biggerstaf”s 10-yard TD reception of a Sean O’Neal pass and Sean Ashley’s 4-yard scoring run with seven seconds left. Neal’s TD pass followed his 83-yard run starting out from the 7-yard-line.
Heading up the Panthers squad were Daniel Owen and Masteller who combined for 12 completions and 138 total yards as Owen’s had 73 to lead his squad;s receivers. Trevor Sand rushed 11 times for 112 yards, including a 46-yard run. Daniels ripped off a 47-yard run and ended the night with seven carries for 78 yards.
Sean O’Neal led Florida Tech rushers with 69 yards on nine carries with Freddie Jones rushing five times for 31 yards. Zac Henderson caught two passes for 23 yards.
Drawing attention
Following the scrimmage, Englehart said a number of players drew attention for outstanding play.
“Jomo (Daniels) has been one of those guys that seems to have a knack for getting into the crease, hitting full speed and breaking off some long runs in scrimmages the last few weeks. Trevor Sand started to play that way in the second half,” Englehart said. “In college, the holes are going to be small and you need to run through arm tackles. That’s what Trevor started to do in the second half.
“(Scotty) Parmer’s been doing a great job. He would have had a touchdown in the first half, but unfortunately, he dropped it along the sideline,” Englehart said. “We still need to work on catching the ball, but once again, it’s what I expected from the first scrimmage. These guys are young and there are going to be mistakes. Overall, it wasn’t a sloppy scrimmage. We had a few fumbles and a couple penalties, but you’re going to have that especially early.”
Tyler Rosenblatt had five solo tackles and assisted on three others for Florida Tech. Zachary Morris has five solo tackles for the Panthers and assisted on one other.
“It was exactly what I expected from a first scrimmage,” Englehart said.
Florida Tech’s second intrasquad scrimmage will be at 5 p.m. Oct. 6 at Palm Bay High School.
