By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Gateway’s goal this season is to reach the state playoffs for the first time.

The Panthers won’t officially begin that quest until they play their first district game next month against St. Cloud, but they can get off to a good regular season start by beating Poinciana Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ridenour Athletic complex.

Gateway, playing without three starters, lost its Kickoff Classic last week at Port Orange Atlantic, 27-22.

Coach Marlin Roberts said the Panthers got a good tune-up for the regular season last week.

“That’s (Port Orange) a good football team. They have all kinds of skilled talent, and they’ve got a pretty good-sized group of linemen,” he said.

The Panthers scored on an 81-yard pass play from quarterback Anthony Rodriguez (6-16-104, 1 TD) to Ian Stevens and on a 20-yard run by Isaiah Wharton. Wharton, who rushed for 64 yards, also ran for a two-point conversion and Aaron Roman caught a pass for two points.

The Panthers scored another TD on Hunter Weber’s 27-yard fumble return.

Roberts expects most of his injured players to return soon.

He liked the play of the defensive front, highlighted by Darrius Simpson and Mike Knight.

“Darrius had a heck of a game at defensive end, and Michael did a good job on the other side,” he said.

Stevens led the team with six tackles. John Paul Sanchez made five tackles.

Roberts said the non-district contest with Poinciana, a 62-7 loser at Inverness Citrus last week, is important for his team.

“From the history of this series, they (Poinciana) probably looked at their schedule and penciled this game in as one they can get,” Roberts said. “We can’t overlook anyone. We better be prepared and ready to play.”

Eagles Coach Corey Fleming said inexperience is a problem for his team.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys out there,” he said. “We ran about 60 defensive plays at Inverness, and we probably lined up right five times.”

The Eagles lost a couple of players to injuries, and others to ineligibility issues.

“A couple of the move-ins who were promising turned out not to have grades,” Fleming said.

But, the Eagles coach expects his team to put those issues aside at kickoff Friday.

“I think our kids see this as a rivalry game, and it’s been close the last couple of years,” Fleming said. “I’m pretty excited about this game. I expect us to go out there and have a good game.”