Marino wants Tigers to win smarter

Palmetto's win at Port Charlotte on Friday sets up a scenario similar to last season - the Tigers will face Lakewood Ranch in two weeks to decide Class 4A-District 11's final playoff spot.
The victory was dramatic - the Tigers beat the Pirates 31-27 on quarterback Melvin Burston's 3-yard run with just over 34 seconds left in the game.
Consequently, coach Dave Marino appreciated his team's grit. However, he knew that had the Tigers done a few things differently, the game never would have been that close.
"Early on, we had our chances to knock them out and really take control of the game," he said. "And we didn't."
One play in particular involved junior running back De'Quan Reddick, who had the ball stripped from him by a Port Charlotte defender late in the fourth quarter. The Pirates returned the fumble to Palmetto's 2 and took a 27-24 lead with 4:13 remaining.
Reddick's run, which went for 21 yards, was impressive, especially toward the end, when he dragged a handful of Port Charlotte players over the 50-yard line.
Marino, however, wished Reddick would have simply settled for the first down.
"You're in (a) five-minute offense. He should have went down. He got the first down, just go down. Slide," he said. "The extra two yards you're going to get doesn't matter...(The) clock's our enemy. We go over those things. But that's the problem when you have a young team - you have to continue to teach them how to win football games.
"They won with heart. I want them to win with their brains a little bit more."
But Palmetto did win, improving its overall record to 3-4 and its district mark to 1-1. The Tigers head to East Manatee County in two weeks to battle a Mustangs team that, similar to Palmetto, has had to battle through a litany of injuries this fall.
First, however, comes Friday's non-district game at Naples Gulf Coast, where Marino hopes the Tigers can iron out some bugs.
"We've just got to keep taking advantage of our opportunities every week to get better," he said. "Port Charlotte's out, so now there's two left standing. So (the Lakewood Ranch) game is going to be like this, but times 10. We've got to be ready for that. So we have to use (Friday) to get ready for that and prepare for that opportunity."