Halfway through the current season, the Mariner Tritons’ effort to rebound from last year’s dismal 1-9 campaign is not going as well as they had hoped under first-year coach Chris Siner.

The Tritons (0-5, 0-1 district) undertake another strong test of their resolve Friday night when they host District 3A-11 rival Bishop Verot (4-1, 0-1) at Tony McKenna Field.

“It’s the same thing we’ve been talking about for the last couple of weeks,” said Siner. “Execution and tackle, tackle, tackle. If you don’t tackle you won’t win football games.”

The Island Coast Gators tested the Tritons’ run defense last week – resulting in a 61-0 pounding – and the Vikings will test the Tritons’ pass defense this week.

“We will have to get after the quarterback and make him throw,” said Siner. “It’s like night and day. Bishop Verot likes to throw the ball a lot more than Island Coast does. Jake Kistel, I think, is one of the two top quarterbacks in the area. We have to get pressure on him from our front four.”

At the same time, the Tritons must find a way to get into the end zone.

“For the most part our offense is there,” said Siner. “We just have not been able to finish. We can drive the ball, but then we turn it over on execution.”

In other District 3A-11 matchups, North Fort Myers (3-2, 1-0) tries to knock off unbeaten South Fort Myers (4-0, 1-0) while Fort Myers (2-3, 0-1) hosts Riverdale (1-3, 1-0).

Ida Baker Bulldogs (0-5) at Gulf Coast Sharks (1-4): It’s wipe-the-slate-clean weekend for the winless Bulldogs, who open District 4A-12 play Friday night at Gulf Coast.

“The new season begins,” said Bulldogs coach Brian Conn. “We start at the top as a coaching staff and try to put forth things for the kids to be successful as a group.”

The Bulldogs have been plagued by penalties and turnovers all season, which is of major concern to Conn and his staff.

“We’ve been able to move the ball okay, but penalties or turnovers have killed our drives,” Conn said. “We have to limit the turnovers and sustain our drives. We have to keep our defense off the field and keep their offense off the field.”

Being a four-team district places more emphasis on each district game, especially with unbeaten Cape Coral sitting in the catbird seat at the top. Gulf Coast is the only team in the district besides Cape that has tasted victory this season.

That bodes well for the Bulldogs if they can find a way to knock off both the Sharks and Palmetto Ridge (0-4) in the coming weeks.

“You feel bad after a loss on Friday night,” said Conn, “but then you see some positives on the films on Saturday. We just have to go out on Friday and put it into action.”

Cape Coral Seahawks (4-0) at Palmetto Ridge Bears (0-4): In Friday’s other District 4A-12 matchup, the Seahawks have to guard against complacency against the winless Bears or looking past them to Island Coast, next week’s opponent.

Coming off a bye week, the Seahawks have had two weeks to prepare for their district opener. If past performances are any indication, the Seahawks should come away unblemished.

The Seahawks are averaging 39 points per game, which is exactly how many points the Bears’ defense has been giving up. Cape’s defense is allowing 15 points a game, which is just slightly less than what the Bears are averaging (19.5).

In other games Friday, in District 2B-6 Island Coast (4-1, 1-0) journeys to Lake Placid and Dunbar (1-3, 1-0) hosts LaBelle; in District 3A-12 Cypress Lake (1-3, 0-1) visits Barron Collier (4-1, 1-0) and East Lee County (1-3, 0-2) hosts Lely (2-3, 1-0); in District 2A-6 Estero (3-2) entertains DeSoto County (2-3).