Dr. Phillips came through its difficult three-week schedule with its first three-game losing streak in eight years. But they hope it will make them better.
Dr. Phillips came into the year with a 30-plus game regular season win streak. The Panthers saw it tested early in the season at Lake Mary when a 99-yard running touchdown put the game away.
Then the schedule hit.
Dr. Phillips scheduled very difficult. Dr. Phillips lost to a rival in West Orange and then fell to defending state champion Apopka. The third of this gauntlet came in the form of 8A No. 1 Mainland.
And for the first time since 2007, after three years without a regular season loss, Dr. Phillips is on a three-game losing streak.
Mainland’s Jachai Polite scored on a 57-yard scoop and score in the fourth quarter to prevent any idea of a comeback as Mainland won 28-7. The Buccaneers held the Panthers to just 119 total yards, breaking free from a 14-7 halftime lead to seal the game.
It was not that Dr. Phillips was not capable of winning any of the last three games — West Orange defeated Dr. Phillips on a late-game score and Dr. Phillips led Apopka at halftime before Apopka came back and won the game in the season half — it is that luck has finally seemed to turn on the team.
Or if not luck, the circumstances of the schedule. The Panthers have at times struggled to get the ball to star receiver Jaquarius Bargnare (24 receptions for 352 yards entering this week’s game but more than 200 came in the Panthers’ Week One win).
The Panthers have found fewer offensive options outside of Bargnare. A lot of these problems were shown in Dr. Phillips’ struggles at Lake Mary four weeks ago, the team’s last win.
The goals for Dr. Phillips are still in front of it. The Panthers have yet to play a district game. And Dr. Phillips should grow stronger from playing these difficult games. It is about winning five games in November and December, coach Rodney Wells told Chris Hays of the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week.
“It’s not hard at all to keep their spirits up. I talked to them about how we are literally two plays away from being 4-0. But when everything is right and everything is good and you’re riding high, that’s when you don’t think you have problems.
“Right now we have adversity and none of them are used to losing in the regular season, so I think it’s a good thing for us.”
A steeper loss Friday to Mainland will test Dr. Phillips a little bit more. Surely the Panthers wanted to get one of these three difficult games to build confidence for the battles to come.
The district season still lays ahead and another opportunity to score these kinds of big wins. When it truly matters this time.
