By Kyle Coppola
Friday Night Lights Football Playoff Preview 11.10.2022
The High School Football Playoffs are here!
We have 5 Lake & Sumter County football teams that made the playoffs this year! That’s a great number and one team is even going for a championship Saturday evening! We have 10-0 South Sumter Raiders, 5-5 Eustis Panthers, 7-3 Mount Dora Christian Academy Bulldogs, 8-1 Lake Minneola Hawks, 7-3 Wildwood Wildcats. Two of these teams play one another so lets showcase all the matchups happening this weekend! Congratulations to all programs making it this far in the season!
Playoff Game Spotlight #1
#7 Bartow High 5-5 @ #2 Lake Minneola 8-1 :
Saturday at 6:00pm
Division 4S
Lake Minneola is the heavy favorite in this game. The Hawks had a fantastic regular season campaign and come into the game at 8-1 on the season. The Hawks are on a 4 game win streak and they look to get what would be a huge win against a Bartow team that comes in at 5-5 on the season. This will be a tougher game than it looks for the Hawks but their offensive weapons have shined this season.
Hawks Quarterback Quinn Niemann has thrown for over 1600 yards this season. He has 15 total touchdowns and he’s one of the best quarterbacks in Lake & Sumter County. Niemann isn’t alone though because The Hawks also bolster one of the best running backs in the county as well. Senior Running Back John Celestin has a whopping 28 touchdowns this season while averaging 7.9 yards per carry. That makes Celestin one of the most dangerous backs in the region.
Defensively for the Hawks, Junior Andrew Bowles leads the team in tackles with 49. Meanwhile Bowles gets help from Inside Linebacker Miles Mitchell who also has over 40 tackles this year and also leads the team in sacks. This defense has shown time after time that it’s one of the best in the county so look for them to give Bartow a difficult game Saturday night.
Meanwhile for Bartow their offense isn’t anything to write home about. Some standouts include Senior Running Back Trequan Jones who has accumulated 8 touchdowns and has run for close to 1000 yards this season. Bartow mostly runs the ball. In fact they’ve only attempted 42 passes all season and completed only 23 of them. No receiver on the Yellow Jackets has scored more than 1 touchdown this season so this could be a very difficult matchup especially considering the offensive firepower The Hawks possess.
Overall Bartow has lost 4 of its last 5 games and limped into the playoffs. They actually got a lot of help with other teams in their district losing key games which helped them make it this far. Unless The Yellow Jackets can keep up offensively this could be a long night for this team. The Hawks know that if they win this game they get to host at least one more home game this season. Best of luck to both teams!
Playoff Game Spotlight #2
#3 MDCA 7-3 @ #1 Lake Highland Prep 9-0 :
Saturday at 7:00pm
2022 SSAC State Championship Game
This was a game no one expected but we got anyways. MDCA was able to make it to the championship game due to a forfeit by Central Orlando Christian Academy. That means MDCA will be playing in the championship for the second year in a row under this particular format. This is a rematch of last years championship game in which the Highlanders won 14-13.
This game should be close and although the Highlanders have the edge MDCA should make it a game. This will be the final game and swan song for many Bulldog players including starting Quarterback Joey Gomory, along with Senior Running Backs Isaiah Bryant and Dillon Gordon. That trio of players has been solid as a rock this season and hopefully they can go out with a win.
Both offenses have shown that they can score but the game will likely come down to defense for both programs. Last years contest was a defensive matchup as both schools could only muster 2 touchdowns a piece. If this game is anything like that one we could see a slugfest once again. The run game will likely be key. Which team controls the ball the most will have the advantage. Any turnover from either offense will be detrimental to winning this championship. We expect a hard fought battle and we can only hope Mount Dora can bring that championship trophy home to Lake & Sumter County!
Other Lake & Sumter County Playoff Games
Division 2S
South Sumter hasn’t lost a football game since November 19th of 2021 when they lost in the playoffs against Cocoa. The Raiders finished the season at a perfect 10-0 and the perfect season has allowed the Raiders to be ranked number 1 in their class. The Raiders have been unstoppable this year.
The Raiders are lead by Senior Quarterback Eian Finkley 19 touchdowns this season and is averaging 20.9 yards through the air which is one of the largest margins in the district. Finkley gets help from some key players including Junior Running Back Jamare Dorsey who’s accumulated 18 touchdowns on the year and rushed for over 1,000 yards.
Raiders Sophomore Recieved Stanley Young has certainly come into his own during the final stretch of the 2022 regular season and passed has 7 touchdowns through the air. Look for the Raiders to utilize a run attack but if the game is close Young is a very reliable target downfield.
We can’t forget about the defense of South Sumter lead by Jawarren Corbin and Malakhi Boone who have combined 127 tackles this season which is devastating if your an opposing offense. Look for the defense to have a field day especially considering the state Eustis offense finds itself in coming into this contest.
Leading Rusher
For Eustis this is a tremendous accomplishment to make it this far in the season. 5 weeks ago the chances for Eustis to make the playoffs was less than 10% however they ran the table in their district and went undefeated to somehow get the automatic bid to the playoffs. If they didn’t win out we certainly wouldn’t be talking about them currently but here we are.
For Eustis they come into the game without their starting star wide receiver Tyree Patterson who we are told has shut things down this season as he’s been recruited to The Florida Gators where he will play SEC football next year. That means it’s up to Senior Quarterback Noel Rodriguez to lead the team along with Senior Running Backs Jaden McKay and Javon Garry who have had nice seasons so far splitting time together.
This is not the first time these teams have played. Eustis actually held their own earlier this season but ultimately came up short and lost 46-20. Still the game wasn’t a cake walk for Eustis and both schools know what to expect from one another this time around. Can Eustis pull what would be an all time upset stunner? The chances are slim. I ran a predictor simulator using the statistics using Watson from IBM and the odds of Eustis winning are less than 2%. That’s pretty low but they also had Tyree Patterson earlier this season so without him the offense changes considerably.
Overall South Sumter should pick this win up. They can potentially run the table setting up a regional final with Cocoa at home. That’s the last team to win against South Sumter. Should be a fun night overall for everyone attending and we wish the best of luck to both programs. We are just sorry the seasons going to end for one of them.
Division 1R
Wildwood travels on the road to Williston who had the perfect regular season going 10-0. Although Williston comes in at 10-0 their season has been weak. Wildwood has played a much more difficult schedule so will that benefit the Wildcats? History would tell us yes but both teams have fairly decent offenses while both have exquisite defenses who are among the best in the league.
Wildcats Senior QB Jamari Dickens has been incredible this season and has laid waste to defenses all season long. The duel threat QB has thrown for nearly 800 yards while rushing for over 200. Meanwhile Vincent Brown Jr. has been utilized in many ways including the wildcat formation. Williston will have difficulty containing these two threats.
Defensively Senior Ricky Harding leads the Wildcats in tackles. He’s always in on every play and if this is Hardings last game what a way to go out. He’s been a leader on and off the field. This is a player who’s been through the highs and lows of everything from the Covid shortened seasons to the thrills of playoffs he’s one of the most well rounded players the Wildcats offer and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in this game. Harding won’t let the Wildcats go down without a fight.
For Williston they statistically have what appears to be an unstoppable offense but remember their strength of schedule was weaker this year. The big standout offensively is Senior Running Back Kyree Edwards who has over 1300 yards rushing and 30 touchdowns this season.
Should be a great contest. Both schools are almost equal and it’s really a 50/50 shot at both winning this game. We give the slight edge to Wildwood due to the defense. Both offenses are going to be explosive so if either defense can force the opposing offense into mistakes or turnovers that could potentially be the difference in this one.
Some great games! We love playoff time and it’s so great to see so many Lake & Sumter County football teams with a chance to do some damage this year. Best of luck to all our teams and a special good luck to MDCA as they look to end their season with a championship! Have a great weekend everyone! We will post results when we have them!
Photos From
Elite Factory Productions
Steed Multimedia
Wildwood High School
Luke Hutchinson
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Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
These are gonna be some great playoff games can’t wait to see the scores