Week starts early with Liberty-Amabassador Christian Thursday tilt
High school football, like life, comes at you fast. For example, there's a game on Thursday.
Liberty (0-1) hosts to Ambassadors Christian Academy (0-1) in a game tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m. The Chargers Liberty lost a 10-point game in Innovation’s first-ever varsity game, 28-18.
With eight 2024 playoff teams on its schedule, it’s not unusual to say that Osceola is playing a big game on any Friday. But that holds true especially this week when the Kowboys (1-0) travel to Seminole County to play the Lake Mary Rams (1-0) for a scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff.
Lake Mary comes into the game ranked 14th overall and second in Class 7A by MaxPreps; the Kowboys are listed as the 9th best team in 6A.
Osceola dominated Treasure Coast, 21-7, Friday in bit of sweet revenge. The Kowboys lost its season opener to the Titans last year and then were beaten again by the same team in the playoffs.
The Kowboys controlled possession throughout–gaining 22 first downs and limiting Treasure Coast to just five possessions in the entire game. Only a 93-yard fumble return for touchdown in the third quarter by the Titans and a bad snap on a punt that resulted in a 30yard loss marred a near perfect performance.
Meanwhile, Lake Mary manhandled 2A, 10th ranked Cardinal Gibbons, 49-20, in its opener. The Rams are led by junior quarterback Noah Grubbs, a Notre Dame commit who threw two touchdown passes Friday and has 68 career touchdown passes.
“He’s an extremely talented player, a precision passer who gets rid of the ball quickly,” OHS Eric Pinellas said. “It’s going to be a big challenge for both our defense but also for our offense. We need to run the ball, move the chains and try to limit Lake Mary’s possessions.”
At the Ranch, Harmony (0-1) will seek its first win of the season when they take on Poinciana (10). Nick Lippert’s squad lost a 21-3 decision to Windermere.
“Defensively, I thought we played a pretty good game,” Lippert said. “We also moved the ball okay on offense, but as was the case with our pre-season game, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with silly mistakes and penalties.”
The Longhorns lone points in the game came on a schoolrecord 53-yard field goal by sophomore Brayden Buehler–a kick Lippert believes could have been good from 55 or 56. Buehler is just the latest in a long-line of outstanding Harmony kickers coached by Longhorns special teams Coach Joe Allison, who won the first Lou Groza Award as the nation’s best college kicker at the University of Memphis in 1992.
The Eagles opened the season with an impressive 3414 win over Celebration. Senior quarterback Cameron Brown accounted for five touchdowns in the win, making a winner out of coach Taron Mallard in his first official game.
“Since taking over this team has been nothing but a pleasant surprise with their attitude, effort and competiveness,” Mallard said. “We haven’t played them in a few years, but I know they are well coached and are always tough defensively. Our offense has been pretty explosive, so it should be a good match-up.”
Harmony leads the alltime series with Poinciana, 8-1, but the teams have not met since 2016.
Fresh off a 14-7 road win over Melbourne, a young Tohopekaliga squad will try to make it two in a row when they host Lyman (1-0) Friday. Sabby Meassick threw for two touchdowns in that game; while Tre Punter caught 10 passes for 146 yards.
Coming off the Poinciana loss, Celebration (0- 1) finds itself at home against Winter Springs (1-0). The Storm has some positive moments against the Eagles. Quarterback Landon Yaw threw two touchdown passes in the game, including a school-record 94-yard pass to Sean Nuzzi. Although the game was called by weather with five minutes to go in the second quarter, it was declared an official contest by mutual consent as St. Cloud defeated Freedom, 27-0. Mike Short saw a solid effort in all three aspects as his defense recorded a pick six and had a shutout, his special teams set up two scores, and his offense recorded three touchdowns in just 17 minutes of play.
“We were waiting out a lightning delay and wanted to continue, but Freedom is traveling to Colorado for an outof- state game on Thursday and didn’t want to wait so the game was called by mutual decision. We would have liked to have gotten more work in, but it is what it is,” Short said.
The Bulldogs will be favored to go to 2-0 when they travel to Pine Ridge on Friday. St. Cloud has now won seven straight games and 16 of 22 under Short– including a 47-7 win over pine Ridge in 2022.
Gateway (0-1) is at Astronaut (1-0) and The Panthers dropped a 40-0 decision to Space Coast Friday.
