GOLDEN GATE at PALMETTO RIDGE, 7:30 p.m.

• Radio: WCNZ/AM 1660

• Video: Check back after the game for video highlights

• Key players: Golden Gate — QB Kenneth Mouton, RB Vernon Jones, RB Claudius Knowles, DE Corey Carter, LB Will Garcia, LB Zack Izbicki. Palmetto Ridge — QB Mike Pinter, RB Gary Jackson, RB Teliphane Charles, S Mike Thomas, S Dylan Lynch.

• What to watch for: New faces. The teams combined to lose 46 seniors from last year. Each team has a quarterback making its first regular-season varsity start. The Bears’ Mike Pinter won the starting job over Mike Thomas. Thomas is filling in at strong safety for Matt Eckard, Palmetto Ridge’s only returning defensive starter. Eckard is out with a foot injury.

More Golden Gate High School Football

• College football locals: Nov. 29, 2008
• College football locals: Nov. 28, 2008
• College football: Golden Gate grad Cieri named all-conference at Division III school

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More Golden Gate High School Football

• College football locals: Nov. 29, 2008
• College football locals: Nov. 28, 2008
• College football: Golden Gate grad Cieri named all-conference at Division III school

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

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NAPLES — Four years and two days ago, football was born at Golden Gate and Palmetto Ridge when the first-year schools met in their inaugural game on the Bears’ field.

All of those original players are gone, but that doesn’t mean the annual Battle for the Gate between Collier County’s youngest public schools has lost any significance to this new crop of players.

“It means just as much,” Palmetto Ridge coach Tim Speakman said. “It’s talked about all the time, not just by football players, but by the student body.”

The winner of tonight’s matchup of the Bears and Titans will take home “The Gate,” the coveted trophy the winning team gets to keep in the halls of the school for the next year. The 4-foot tall, seven-slat wide segment of picket fence isn’t the only point of pride on the line tonight.

Both Golden Gate and Palmetto Ridge have a banner hanging in their gyms listing the score of each game between the two. The Titans had the upper hand to start, winning the first two, but the Bears have beaten their rival two straight times heading into tonight’s fifth installment.

“That banner’s up there for everyone to see,” Speakman said, “and you want to make sure you’re on the positive side of it.”

These two teams opened the season against each other last year for the first time since the inaugural meeting. In years two and three of the series, the Battle for the Gate came in Week 10, the second-to-last game of the season.

Speakman said playing Golden Gate right off the bat helps fire up his squad for the season. Titans coach Dave Tanner likes playing the Bears in Week 1, too, but for different reasons.

“I’d just as soon go ahead and do it,” Tanner said. “What’s more important (than the Gate) is how you do in district. This rivalry game prepares you a little more for district games, which is a more important goal.”

The Battle used to be a district matchup, but Palmetto Ridge moved up to Class 4A last season, while Golden Gate remains in 3A.

Now that the annual matchup is just for bragging rights and a trophy with no district implications, Tanner said the Battle might be losing some luster. As the Titans continue to battle for a playoff spot with three other Collier County teams in District 3A-14, new rivalries are slowly cropping up.

“Our kids probably get more excited when they play somebody close like Naples,” Tanner said. “We know most the kids at Lely. Our kids don’t know the kids that go to Palmetto Ridge for the most part.”

Neither team will be very familiar with its opponent tonight. Both schools feature a slew of new players after losing a combined 46 seniors from last season.

Bears receiver Sean Smikle, who caught one pass for 36 yards in Palmetto Ridge’s 38-10 victory last season, is the only player in tonight’s game that gained any yards in last year’s Battle. The Bears’ Torrey Campbell rushed for 20 yards against the Titans last season, but will miss tonight’s game after twisting his ankle in the preseason.

Both teams bring rookie quarterbacks into tonight’s contest as well. Freshman Kenneth Mouton will be under center for Golden Gate, while Mike Pinter will make his first varsity start for the Bears.