{"id":436594,"date":"2026-10-24T06:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T06:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436594\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T06:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T06:44:17","slug":"prep-football-charlottes-hopes-crash-down-against-cape-coral-sun-preps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436594\/","title":{"rendered":"PREP FOOTBALL: Charlotte&#8217;s hopes crash down against Cape Coral | Sun Preps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PUNTA GORDA \u2014 Kevin Claxton holds himself and the Charlotte High football team to a high standard. That\u2019s why the first-year head coach spent the postgame huddle apologizing to his team for not preparing them well enough for Cape Coral. Charlotte (6-3) had a chance to win its district with a win over the Seahawks, but couldn\u2019t keep up in a 48-14 loss where the lead quickly ballooned to a running-clock margin in the third quarter. By most metrics, Claxton\u2019s debut season should be considered a success. The Tarpons opened the season with a 5-0 record, but injuries and better competition did them in over the past four games, a stretch in which they have gone 1-3. Still, Claxton, a former college football player at Wisconsin, expected more from himself and the team. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate for our great group of seniors, and I truly do apologize to them for not having the team ready to go,\u201d Claxton said. \u201cNot to sound like a negative person, but I\u2019m not satisfied,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we laid the foundation. I haven\u2019t been here for a full year. The staff hasn\u2019t been together for a full year. I think we\u2019ll stay together and iron out some of our flaws. I think we will be a good football team and people will want to start coming back to Charlotte High School. This is a great place with a great game day environment. I just wish we could have played better for the people who showed up for us tonight.\u201d The final score doesn\u2019t accurately depict how this game went, or how it could have gone differently. Charlotte had its chances to turn the momentum, and briefly did so at one point just before halftime. Cape Coral receiver TJ Schley fumbled on the Seahawks\u2019 first drive and Charlotte recovered at the Cape 33-yard line. However, the offense gained just one yard and punted the ball to the Cape 1-yard line. The Seahawks punted on the following drive, but scored touchdowns on the three straight drives that followed \u2014 on a 28-yard pass from Derek Hooker to Noel Devine Jr., a 2-yard run by Schley that he set up with a 42-yard reception and on a 65-yard run by Devine Jr. Trailing 21-0, Charlotte was on the verge of playing itself out of the game. However, the Tarpons responded with a drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown run by Martae Taylor with 1:21 remaining in the first half. A defensive stand followed, and the Tarpons drove into scoring range, but quarterback Jack Grimes was sacked and pushed out of field goal range. Another crucial series of events happened on the Seahawks\u2019 opening drive of the second half. Facing fourth and short, Cape Coral opted for a 47-yard field goal to try to make it a three-score game. However, Charlotte jumped offside to grant the Seahawks a first down, and they capitalized a few plays later on a 10-yard touchdown run by Caleb Cobb. The game unraveled from there. Grimes was sacked a sixth and seventh time on the following drive. He dropped the ball on the last sack and Carter Bernthaler picked it up and raced 23 yards to the end zone. Charlotte could not corral the ensuing kickoff \u2014 a mix between an onside kick and a squib \u2014 and Cape Coral marched 33 yards, scoring on a 2-yard pass from Hooker to Soldier Morse. That score triggered a running clock with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter, leaving the Tarpons with not enough time to orchestrate a comeback. KEY PLAYS: Charlotte\u2019s inability to capitalize on the opening fumble was crucial and was a missed opportunity to set the tone. The Tarpons also forced another fumble, but couldn\u2019t recover it, and Cape Coral finished that drive taking a 14-0 lead. The second-half fumble by Grimes and the ensuing kickoff blew the game open. KEY STATS: An obvious difference in this game was a seasoned senior quarterback going against a green freshman. Hooker completed 12-of-18 passes for 158 yards and 2 TDs with no turnovers. Grimes completed 5-of-9 passes for 93 yards with no touchdowns. He also held onto the ball too long too many times, leading to seven sacks for negative 29 yards and a fumble. WHAT IT MEANS: This was a make-or-break game for Charlotte. Now, the Tarpons will not win their district and will not make the regional playoffs. Though a winning season is secured, Charlotte had higher hopes for this season, especially after opening the year with a 5-0 record. QUOTE: \u201cThere were a lot of variables that went into it. I won\u2019t pinpoint two or three things. Being a young team, I\u2019ve said it all year, it reared its head tonight. We had some really, really unfortunate plays, and we just have to be better. We had opportunities. We got the fumble to start the game, and we have to capitalize. We have to play complementary football, find a way to get points out of those types of drives, and tonight we didn\u2019t do that. They\u2019re a good team and they have good football players. I just think we could have been better.\u201d \u2014 Claxton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUNTA GORDA \u2014 Kevin Claxton holds himself and the Charlotte High football team to a high standard. That\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,145145,145144],"class_list":["post-436594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-high-school","tag-sun_preps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}