After 10 years without a winning season, the PPCHS varsity football team went against all the odds and went 4-1 in their 2020-2021 season. As they enter this year, they hope to repeat that same success and show that their winning season wasn’t just a fluke. 

   Last Thursday night, the Jaguars got back to winning ways as they blew out Northeast with a score of 35-0. The team looked as dominant as ever as they controlled all aspects of the game. On the defensive end, Northeast did not have a chance against the charter defense. Both of Charter’s linebackers, Maddox Marcellus and Diego McClaskey had great games as they were key in keeping the Northeast offense from sparking any form of offense. Another key player, Julian Fletcher, was a lockdown cornerback and didn’t allow anything to get past him. In addition to his cornerback skills, he had multiple big plays on the special teams side. 

   On the offensive end, Jaguars starting quarterback, Malachi Clarke, junior, ran for a 3-yard touchdown and led the offense down the field multiple times to put points on the board. His great leadership and skills were on display as he showed why he deserves to be the starting quarterback of the team. When asked about the team’s attitude coming into this new season, Malachi expressed, “The team’s attitude is great, we have a win under our belt. After missing our spring game and preseason game, this win feels great to us. So in general the team’s attitude is really good.” 

   It is still too early to tell if charter can keep up this winning streak; however, this team has proved that they have come this season with a hunger we’ve haven’t seen in the past seasons. Ryan Reyes, who is one of Charter’s more versatile players that play on both ends of the ball, has great confidence with his team this year. When asked about his expectations on the team, he explained, “My expectations are very high. After a great season from our 2020-2021 varsity team we have big shoes to fill! Our Northeast game was only our first game together as a team and we executed very well. I believe the more work we put on the field during practice, the more the game results will be in our favor. Our football program is in good hands with our coach, Coach Willis, who guides us in the right direction. He teaches us discipline on top of how to succeed in the sport of football. This is a great year for our football team and we hope to be 2-0 after this week.”

   The next game for the PPCHS varsity football team is Thursday against Nova at 7:00pm. The team hopes to catapult their momentum towards this next game as they play away, once again, at  Nova. Nova opened their season with a staggering loss to South Broward with a score of 42-0. We’ll see if the team can pounce on Nova as they try to continue their winning record this season. 

   Only time will tell whether or not the Jags can prove to the fans that this squad has a winning culture all around it. Can the football team go back to back winning seasons? Or was it just a fluke?