Boca Ciega football looking to enter uncharted territory

The Pirates enter Friday's Class 3A, Region 3 final against Sarasota Booker for a chance to reach the state semifinals for the first time in program history

Boca Ciega Football 2024 / Boca Ciega Football/X

GULFPORT, FLORIDA- When the clocks hit all zeros in last week's Class 3A, Region 3 semifinal between Boca Ciega and Jefferson, the Pirates had all but secured a shot at history.

Coming off a decisive 42-0 victory over the Dragons, the Pirates booked their ticket to the region final, where they'll meet a familiar opponent in Sarasota Booker, which beat Boca Ciega 48-12 during the regular season.

First-year head coach Kelvin Smarwt told his Pirates back in June that he wanted to do something that's never been done before. He and his Pirates will get their shot at program history on Friday night when they face Sarasota Booker in a rematch. If Boca Ciega wins, it would be the first ever trip to the state semifinals in program history.

"You know, I can tell you for sure with no doubt there's a chip on on my shoulder and everybody shoulder on this football field," Smarwt said heading into the rematch with Sarasota Booker. "We got dominated last time we played them and (the players) accepted the challenge of, you know, revenge, you know, and just making sure that we play our best football because we didn't play our best that game."

Sitting at 4-4 after the first meeting with the Tornadoes left many to wonder what kind of team the Pirates really could be down the stretch. Heading into the team's ninth game against Clearwater Central Catholic, the only other Pinellas County team still standing in the playoffs, Smarwt saw something out of his team afterwards.

Though the Pirates (7-5) ended up losing the contest 55-21, Boca Ciega came away feeling like they could take away plenty of positives from the game and they've become a much better football team for it.

"I think people look at the score, but I think the CCC game kind of was a big eye-opener for us to see that we could we could go toe for toe and blow for blow with one of the better teams in the state," Smarwt said.

"It's just small gains, small things from that game when we looked at film. We're like, well, you know, we have a missed fit here on defense or we slid the wrong way on offense or we had a dropped ball on offense or things like that. That really hurt us when we could have took the lead in that game. You know, those are just small things. I think that was a huge confidence booster for us and ever since that game kind of we've been trending up."

The upwards trend has led to two blowout victories in these Class 3A state playoffs, with Boca Ciega soundly defeating Chamberlain and Jefferson on the road. The Pirates have played the role of road warriors well and now they'll hit Interstate 75 down to Sarasota one more time to take on the Tornadoes.

Having players like senior quarterback Dylan Nahra and wide receiver Walter Flounory has helped make the historic run for the Pirates possible. Nahra this season has thrown for 2,287 yards and 30 touchdowns through the air.

The southpaw's favorite target has been two-way dynamo Flounory, who has hauled in 44 passes for 859 yards and 15 touchdowns. Both players will need to be at the top of their game if they hoped to lead Boca Ciega to the next round and into the history books.

"We know what we got here. We're trying to just win a regional title and do something that we haven't done before," Nahra said. "I'm blessed and thankful to be practicing on Thanksgiving. You know not too many people get to do that and you know it's just a blessing that we're able to be out here still practicing and going for that regional title."

Predicting the winners of the 2024 Florida high school football playoffs 3A region finals

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-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl