Preview: Palm Bay Pirates vs. Cocoa Tigers
Palm Bay is 0-5 against Cocoa since August of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Palm Bay Pirates are on the road again and play against the Cocoa Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on October 27th. Palm Bay will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 159th, while Cocoa is ranked fourth).
Two weeks ago, a win is a win, as they say, even a pretty close 7-3 victory over Sebastian River.
Meanwhile, Cocoa entered their tilt with Astronaut with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. Cocoa didn't even let Astronaut onto the board and left with a 63-0 win on Friday. The result was nothing new for Cocoa, who have now won five matches by 21 points or more so far this season.
Brady Hart was his usual excellent self, throwing for 132 yards and five touchdowns while completing 100% of his passes. Nathan Chaisson made the highlight reel by snagging an interception and taking it all the way to the house.
Another reason for the win was Cocoa's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for four sacks. Astronaut's QB won't forget Xadrian Smith anytime soon given Smith sacked him four times.
Palm Bay's win was their fourth straight on the road, which bumped their overall record up to 6-2. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 2-7 Astronaut and 2-6 Melbourne (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 30.6% over those games). As for Cocoa, their win bumped their record up to 7-1.
Palm Bay was dealt a bruising 49-3 defeat at the hands of Cocoa in their previous meeting back in November of 2022. Thankfully for Palm Bay, Blake Boda (who threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
