Although it seems like the pre-season drills started just a couple of weeks ago, another regular season ends this week with seven of the eight public schools in action.
St. Cloud (3-6) at Winter Springs (1-7): Before looking forward, let’s look back at Friday’s epic Soldier City Classic, a 31-30 Bulldogs win over Harmony. St. Cloud reached season highs in points (31), first downs (11), passing yards (118) and total yards (233). That was with starting five freshmen, including quarterback Logan King, who hit Jayden Morehead on a 41- yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter for the winning points.
“I am so happy for this team. It’s been a really rough season for us and these kids deserved something good to happen to them,” Bulldogs Coach Bryan Smart said. “I told them, this game is what high school football is all about. We may not have a winning record at the end of the year, but these kids will remember this game forever.”
A closing win over Winter Springs sends the Bulldogs into the offseason on a two-game win streak.
Liberty (4-5) at Poinciana (1-8): It’s the 15th annual Battle of the Boulevard, but unlike the competiveness of the Harmony-St. Cloud rivalry, Liberty has won all 14 previous games with only decided by less than a touchdown, an 18-16 Charger comeback win in the 2007 inaugural game.
Poinciana looks to end the streak and post back-to-back wins. Last week, Poinciana won its first game of the season by defeating Ambassador Christian Academy, 13- 8. “Ambassador was nice enough to take the game on short notice and I thought our kids responded well given the fact that we lost five starters this week for various reasons,” Beeken said. “On paper, we will be over-matched personnel wise against Liberty but we will put in a good week of work and get ready.”
Against Ambassador, juniors Seth McWhorter and Jaylon Morris split time at quarterback, each scoring a rushing touchdown in the win.
Liberty looks to keep the streak alive and post its first .500 season or better since 2018.
The Chargers lost last week to Mulberry, 14-12, when it failed to convert a two point conversion and had what appeared to be a safety taken off the board.
“It was a disappointing game,” Liberty Head Coach Brett Munroe said. “A lot of the game was played in a driving rain storm and although our guys gave a great effort we just had some things go against us.”
Quarterback David Bacote, starting his second game in place of sophomore Jeremiah Pierre-Louis, who sat out with a broken hand, threw for one touchdown and passed for another.
Munroe said he expects a tough game from the Eagles.
“As we saw from Harmony-St. Cloud, anything can happen in a rivalry game. The Battle of the Boulevard is the biggest game of the year in this area and means a lot to both sides.”
Munroe added that his first year with the Chargers has been both rewarding and taxing. “We had 12 guys show up for our first pre-season workout and now we have 45. We’ve grown a lot as a team. Throughout the season I have reiterated every play matters. We need to win this week to finish at .500 but we were three or four plays away where we could be 8-2.”
Orange City University (6-1) at Osceola (7-2): Osceola’s playoff seeding — or perhaps playoff fate — could be determined when it hosts the Titans.
Theoretically, the Kowboys need a win to clinch a wild card spot in Region 8A-3, but ranking points gained by playing one-loss University may be enough regardless of the outcome.
Coach Eric Pinellas’ team used a big second half to dismantle Celebration, 47-6, last week. The run defense was once again outstanding, limiting Celebration’s Oneil Senatus to 31 yards on 22 carries. Still, the Kowboys only led 7-0 at the half, which was a concern to Pinellas.
“We’ve got to get the idea out of some kids head that when teams see ‘Kowboys’ on the chest they just lay down for us,” Kowboys Coach Eric Pinellas said. “We’ve got to play four quarters; because we’re a lot of teams’ Super Bowls. This was not the Celebration of old, they are well-coached.”
Seven different Kowboys scored touchdowns, and Osceola got 284 passing yards from Chad Mascoe, who hit on 12 straight passes.
Gateway (2-7) at Celebration (5-4): Rich Pringle’s Storm squad can wrap-up second the second winning season in school history with a victory over Gateway, a game rescheduled from Week 1. Although Celebration stayed within seven at half, Pringle was not satisfied with the moral victory.
“That’s a phenomenal team we played, and we needed to score by 7s to stay with them,” he said. “You can’t make the mistakes we did, especially in the red zone. We accorded ourselves very well against Osceola for a half, but then we ran out of juice and depth.”
Senatus scored on a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Pringle said Friday the Storm is setting up a postseason bowl game, likely to be played Friday, Nov. 12.
Gateway was shutout by District 6A-8 power Lake Wales, 58-0.
The Panthers lead the all-time series with Celebration, 5-2, but the Storm won the most recent game, 27-16, last year.
Harmony (5-4) at New Smyrna Beach (6-3): The Longhorns hope to end their regular season on a winning note when they hit the road for a Friday night matchup with the Barracudas.
Running back Tyler Emans (1,367 rushing yards, 26 total touchdowns) will attempt to add to his already-established season record totals for rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and points scored.
Tohopekaliga wrapped up its first season under Coach Jeff Higgins with a 2-8 record with a 40-0 loss Monday to Lake Nona.
