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NAPLES — The Palmetto Ridge football players celebrated Friday night’s win the way you’d expect.

“We got the Gate!” the players chanted, as a couple of them lifted the revolving trophy that goes to the winner of the annual Palmetto-Golden Gate game.

Perhaps, instead, the Bears should have lifted Gary Jackson. Lord knows they could have.

Jackson, the bug-sized tailback who starred in Palmetto Ridge’s 35-7 home victory, is listed at 5-foot-5, 150 pounds on the roster.

And it’s a tale. A tall one.

“I’m about 4-foot-11, 140 pounds,” Jackson said in the final seconds of the season opener, as he watched Golden Gate’s final possession with teammates on the sideline.

He paused.

“Nah,” he said. “About 139 pounds.”

Not that it really matters.

That’s the exact point the senior proved in the Battle for the Gate, rumbling for 132 yards and two touchdowns. Most of his 22 carries were between the tackles with his shoulders squared, a workhorse in a scat-back’s body.

Coach Tim Speakman, who feared Golden Gate’s team speed, would have had it no other way. He believed the key to victory was to chew up the clock on offense — and, by virtue, keep the Titans’ best athletes off the field.

And he had little doubt that Jackson, the littlest player on the field, was just the man to help the Bears get that done.

“I don’t care about that man’s size,” Speakman said of Jackson. “He’s got all the heart in the world.”

Palmetto Ridge went to Jackson right out the gate, handing the ball to him on its first 10 offensive plays (for 51 yards) and 12 of its first 14 (for 54). The Bears went to him 16 times for 93 yards in the first half alone.

Then, others got involved.

Teliphane Charles returned the opening kick of the second half 88 yards for a score. Torrey Campbell, who assumed most of the rushing load in the second half, finished with 66 yards and a score. Mike Pinter, making his first start behind center, went 6-of-12 passing for 83 yards, including a late TD to Sean Smikle.

But bigger than any of that, perhaps, was the performance of the Palmetto Ridge defense.

With safety Matt Eckhart nursing an injury, the Bears had 11 first-time varsity starters on the field to start the game. If only that had made life easier for Golden Gate freshman Kenneth Mouton, thrust into the starting spot when Mike Spano, last year’s quarterback, quit football to focus on baseball.

With the ground game nonexistent, Golden Gate coach Dave Tanner had little choice but to put Mouton in the shotgun and let him learn on the run. The Bears did the rest, sacking the rookie five times and intercepting him once.

Mouton completed five passes and finished with just 40 yards through the air. Many of his misfires, though, were dropped passes.

“We worked all week,” Speakman said, “on pursuit angles. We didn’t want their speed to become a factor.”

It did, but only once.

Tony Mitchell returned a kickoff 84 yards for Golden Gate’s lone score, giving the visitors a brief 7-6 lead midway through the first quarter.

The Titans, who produced only 52 yards of offense, could get little else going. They lost to Palmetto Ridge for the third straight time in the Battle for the Gate after winning the first two meetings.

“Congratulations,” Speakman told his team in the postgame huddle. “That bad boy’s staying with us right here.”

He was talking about the Gate. Just as easily, though, he could have been talking about Jackson.

The Bears will keep him, too.