Noles win 22-13 over visiting Raiders.
Head coach Karl Calhoun put it this way: “It was a crazy game, ugly game, but it feels good to be 1-0.”
Crazy and ugly pretty much sums up the Seminole’s 22-13 regular season opening win against Rockledge.
The Raiders scored first to take a 6-0 lead after a missed PAT with 7:49 left in the first quarter.
Following a pass interference on the Raiders, quarterback Karson Siquerios-Lasky connected with fellow senior Michael Key for a 15-yard touchdown, the PAT was good. As the Noles took the lead for good, 7-6, with 3:54 left in first quarter.
“Karson does it all for us,” Calhoun said. “He’s one of the best in the state and tonight he just controlled the tempo of the game.”
Midway through the second quarter, Siquerios-Lasky would connect with receiver Justin Rosado to give the Noles a 13-6 lead. Rosado widened that lead when he broke free for his second score of the night when he returned a punt 50-yards with under a minute left in the third.
Seminole looked as if it was going to add to the score in the middle of the fourth but a fumble deep in Rockledge territory gave the ball back to the Raiders. The Noles defense rebounded on the next play, causing an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone for a safety giving Seminole a 22-6 lead.
With seven players out on defense, Calhoun said he was pleased with the effort. “We are missing a ton of guys on defense, we’re down seven guys,” he said. “But we don’t use that as an excuse it’s next man up.”
Rockledge added a touchdown late to finish up the scoring.
“We’ve got a mantra here to say ‘IOU,’ its only us and we need to worry about ourselves and improve on ourselves,” Calhoun said.
The Noles get their chance to show the IOU mantra when Seminole hosts Osceola Sept. 1, kick off is set for 7 pm.
