Week 3: Martin County football brushes off distractions, hands Jupiter first loss

Getting on the field Friday night for the Martin County football program was a welcome sight after a mentally taxing week.

Starting off the week with the news of senior Antwan Mitchell being grazed by a bullet while he was driving home in his car Sunday to two former Martin County volunteer assistant coaches among eight adults arrested Thursday as a result of "Operation Martingate", an investigation finding parents of former Tiger football players falsified records to play for the school, the Tigers on the field produced a workmanlike effort to snag a big victory.

Martin County's defense came up with three takeaways and bottled up Jupiter's offense all night while making key plays on offense at the right time to hand the Warriors their first loss of the season with a 17-7 victory at Tiger Stadium.

With much of the area abuzz discussing the fallout of the arrests of Port St. Lucie Police Sgt. Robert Vega and former Port St. Lucie Assistant Chief William Vega, Jr., who coached at Martin County from 2021-22, it remained business as usual for the current Tiger program going into Friday's game.

Posting consecutive wins over Palm Beach County programs after a setback in Week 1 to Bartow, Martin County is hopeful that the rest of the season will be uneventful with a focus now solely on football.

Contributions across the board lift Tigers

Right from the opening drive Friday, Martin County's defense showed they came to play as Bowling Green commit Joe Shimko stripped the ball away from Jupiter running back Carter Simonson and made the recovery that halted an impressive Warrior drive to begin the night.

The first of several critical third down conversions the Tigers would pick up on the night set up the Tigers to take a 7-0 lead as Dominic Lucci's 11-yard run on a third-and-2 put Martin County on the Jupiter 26-yard line.

Martin County senior quarterback Jackson Williams, who came to the Tigers from Jupiter in the offseason, lofted a perfect throw to the hands of junior Tristin Taylor, who caught the ball and got a foot in bounds to give Martin County the lead.

The Tigers again forced a fumble on Jupiter's next drive with Valentino Poto jarring the ball loose that was recovered by Morgan Williams, but Jupiter's defense would get a stop on a fourth down to halt Martin County's momentum.

After Jupiter tied the game midway through the second quarter on a 1-yard plunge by quarterback Luke Douglas, a missed field goal right before halftime by Martin County's John Connolly left the two teams tied 7-7.

To begin the third quarter, Martin County converted three third downs and Lucci would eventually score from a yard to cap off a nearly 6-minute drive out to put the Tigers back ahead 14-7.

Getting a stop on defense after Jupiter held the ball nearly the remainder of the third quarter, the Tigers chewed up more clock into the fourth quarter and picked up two more critical third down conversions to eventually set Connolly up on a 38-yard field goal he booted through to give his team a two-score lead with 6:23 remaining.

An interception from Grady McKinney ended Jupiter's next drive and a sack to end the night from Mason Fields put a capper on a night in which Martin County head coach Rod Harris penned as a complete team effort.

"Really great win for us, offense, defense, special teams, it was a tremendous team win," Harris said. "Jupiter did a tremendous job, very good football team over there with good coaches and I wish them the best this year."

Big miss bites Warriors

While Jupiter's offense had a tough time moving the ball after its first drive of the night, the Warrior defense played more than well enough to give the team a shot in the second half.

Each team had extended drives in the third quarter and where Martin County cashed in their opportunity to take the lead, Jupiter was unable to answer.

After Lucci's go-ahead touchdown for the Tigers in the third quarter, a good kickoff return by Warrior senior Nolan Hollinger set up Jupiter near midfield.

Jupiter worked the ball just outside the red zone and facing a fourth-and-7 from the Tiger 27-yard line, Douglas overthrew his younger brother Preston, who had beat two Martin County defenders right down the seam and from there, the Warriors never recovered.

It will be a quick turnaround for Jupiter as they will welcome in a winless Suncoast program next Thursday as the Warriors look to get back on track.

Winning alleviates drama for Martin County

The victory for the Tigers amid the circumstances involving Mitchell, one of their top senior playmakers who is expected to return to play next week, and the craziness of Operation Martingate is what the program and athletic department hopes to be a turning of the page.

Tiger athletic director Josh Moberg reiterated that the football program was still not impacted in any manner by the arrests of its former volunteer coaches and all parties involved that were arrested no longer have any ties to the program.

Whether or not any ramifications of former players living in falsified addresses will impact the program down the road will remain to be seen but for the rest of the season, Harris and his staff will be focused on the next task at hand which will be hosting a red-hot Treasure Coast program Thursday.

Declining to provide a comment when asked on the arrests of two of his former assistant coaches, Harris pointed to the mettle his kids showed in the face of things far out of their control they had to endure this week.

"What I've noticed a lot at Martin County is these kids are resilient, they've gone through a lot over the years and they always seem to bounce back and come together to play hard and put away the distractions when they need to," Harris said. "I couldn't be prouder of them."

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Football: Martin County sidesteps distractions, hands Jupiter first loss