There’s a particular type of football Tampa Catholic coach Bob Henriquez says his squad needs to avoid in Friday’s Class 2A semifinals game against Miami Gulliver Prep: flag football.

Gulliver Prep’s offense is run out of the spread and it’s one of the most effective and productive teams the Crusaders have faced all season.

Raiders junior quarterback Michael Strauss has passed for 2,817 yards and 29 touchdowns and has four receivers who have hauled in 30 or more passes this fall. One, senior Conner Vernon, has 60 receptions. To keep defenses honest, Gulliver features a breakaway-threat running back in Darian Mallary, who has rushed for 1,602 yards and 14 TDs.

“They want it to be a flag football game,” Henriquez said. “So we have to limit their opportunities, which for us means playing better on offense and controlling the ball.”

Behind Crusaders junior quarterback Christian Green, Henriquez believes his defense gets to see an effective offense—one that runs some spread formations—on a regular basis. But the key for TC, he says, will be limiting turnovers, producing time-consuming drives and winning the field-position battle so that when the Raiders do have the ball, they will be facing a long field, not a short one.

“You don’t want it to be a scoring contest against them,” Henriquez said. “That’s the mistake over teams have made and what we’ll be trying to avoid.”