A possible offensive shootout featuring two of the best quarterbacks in the area highlights Friday’s football contests Friday.
Six of the county’s eight programs will be in action against each other, with another taking on a marquee name in Central Florida.
The District 7A-9 title is essentially on the line when Tohpekaliga (4-3, 1-0) travels to Tom Gannarelli Field for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff against the St. Cloud Bulldogs (5-2, 1-0). St. Cloud comes off its bye week while Tohopekaliga defeated Masters Academy, 42-8, last Friday.
The winner will be insured of no worse than a tie for the district title that tiebreakers would decide.
Tohopekaliga’s Sabby Meassick went 28-for-52 for 381 yards in the Masters win. The seniors now has 1,034 completions for his varsity career to break the all-time FHSAA state record held by Lake Nona’s Kyle Israel. He is also the all-time county leader in passing yards (12,202) and passing touchdowns (126).
Although just a sophomore, St. Cloud’s Jeremiah Lattier has been putting up some prolific numbers in his first year with the Bulldogs. In seven games, he is averaging more than 270 passing yards per game with 17 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
While an offensive shootout is expected, St. Cloud coach Mike Short says those games can be nerve-racking to coaches.
“If it came to a shootout, I wouldn’t necessarily be uncomfortable because of what we can do on offense. That type of game is fun for the fans but can be stressful on the coaches. On the other hand, one-score defensive games are just as stressful. One mistake could cost you the game. To tell you the truth, I’d take either one— if we end up on the winning side.”
Short said containing Meassick would be the mission for his defense. “He’s an outstanding player who can throw the ball to a bunch of different receivers. He is 100% our major concern. But they recently started running the ball a lot more, so we need to pay attention to that too.”
Meassick’s favorite target Tre Punter missed last week with an injury, but running back Xaevez Brown picked up the slack with four catches for 128 yards and rushed for 123 yards, scoring four total touchdowns. The Tigers combined to run for just 99 yards in their first three games but have been averaging 167 rushing yards over last four.
For his part, Tohopekaliga coach Anthony Paradiso says there is no pressure on his team.
“We lost so much talent to graduation and a few transfers that we have been in rebuild mode this year,” he says. “In addition to being young, we had more than our fair share of injuries. It seems like every week we are missing three or four key starters. I have been extremely proud of the effort these kids have been playing with every week and our goal is to clean up the mistakes of the last two games and get better this week.”
In other action, Osceola (52, 2-0) punched its ticket to the playoffs last week with a 13-10 win over Viera and will host Apopka in a non-district game this week.
The Kowboys are coming off two games where penalties and turnovers kept them closer than expected. That included Friday’s game against Viera, where Osceola had to rely on its defense to come up with three fourth-quarter stops—including an interception on the final drive –to preserve the win.
“The mistakes are troublesome, but those things that we can corrected,” Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas said. “What does bother me is the mounting injuries. On Friday, we lost running back Jeff Sinophat (concussion protocol) and our second-best offensive lineman Jaeden Bellamy to a possible torn ACL or MCL. Seems like every week we get one guy back but lose two more. You can always clean up mistakes and penalties, injuries not so much.”
Friday night also brings an intriguing game between independents Poinciana ( 2-- 5) and Gateway ( 3- 5). Coming off an 8-3 season, Eagles Coach Taron Mallard had wanted to continue to build on that success, but his young team simply was not able to duplicate the explosive numbers from last year’s senior class.
After coming off a winless 2023 season, the Panthers improved to four wins last year and Coach Marlin Roberts believed he had a team that could improve on that total this year.
“We created a renewed interest in football and had a big turnout in the fall,” he says. “We had some talent and finally a little depth. But this team is still very young and we simply weren’t able to put the ball in the end zone early against the better teams we faced this year.”
In Friday’s 42-13 win over Lake Placid, running back Nydrell Thigpen ran for 307 yards and scored five touchdowns as the Panthers had its best offensive game of the season.
The winner of Friday’s game will keep the chance of a .500 season alive, something Roberts says is important for his team.
“After some down years, we are trying to build some momentum for our program. We took a big step forward last year and although our record this season is not where we wanted to be, a win Friday would avenge last year’s loss to Poinciana and make a 5-5 record possible. That would be another positive step in the direction we want to go.”
Although knocked out of the district championship race with a tough 21-9 loss to Lake Nona last week, Harmony (34) looks to get back to .500 with a win over Celebration (1- 6) this week. The Horns offense struggled to get into the end zone last week as five trips inside the Lions 30 ended in three field goals, a blocked field goal and a turnover on downs. A win would give the Longhorns some momentum heading into next week’s Soldier City Classic with rival St. Cloud.
Finally, Liberty (0-7) seeks its first win of the season when it hosts Fort Pierce Westwood (3-4) at 7 p.m.
