The center of Hurricane Hermine has passed the Bay Area, but we’re still feeling some of the effects left by the first hurricane to hit Florida in over a decade. There’s been a number of cancellations, not only of school days, but football games were not immune from Hermine. We’ve still got quite a bit of football to be played on this Friday night, so if your favorite school was cancelled, you can still venture out and watch some football in almost all of the counties in our coverage area.

Here’s three games that haven’t been touched by Hurricane Hermine that you need to pay attention to:

 

• Lake Gibson at Winter Haven:

 

Polk County has been running smoothly over the past few days, as they haven’t cancelled school or football – and this matchup is going to have a huge crowd with all of the other cancellations. Watch for a back and forth game as Lake Gibson Head Coach Doug DeMyer looks to out-duel Winter Haven’s Charlie Tate.

 

• Calvary Christian at Northside Christian (moved to Saturday):

 

Since we’re just about out of Friday games to talk about, we’ve got this game on Saturday to look forward to. Northside Christian looked good in their 22-18 win against First Baptist Academy last Saturday, and it looks like the Mustangs may be the early favorite to win Class 2A-District 6. Calvary Christian comes in after defeating Trinity Prep 49-30 in Week One.

• Gaither at Bloomingale:

 

This will be a test for a Gaither team that will have to travel almost 45 minutes to face a Bulls squad that has a chance to surprise, just like they surprised Newsome in Week One. Gaither’s decisive victory over Steinbrenner showed just how good the Cowboys are going to be, but overall, we’ve got two good teams that can both move the football and make big stops on defense.

Like we’ve mentioned, there’s been a lot of notable events from week one that we couldn’t help but mention. Here’s three that may peak your interest:

134 – That was the number of combined total points between Hewitt-Trussville and Manatee last Friday night. We had to constantly remind ourselves that they were playing football. Even though they scored 56 points, the Hurricanes couldn’t grab the win over the Huskies.

64 – That was the number of points that Carrollwood Day put up on Avant Garde to start the season. The Patriots completed every single one of their passes, but only compiled 211 yards of total offense. It would be three fumble recoveries for touchdowns that made the lead so large for the Patriots. This week, they play Grape Vine Faith School from Texas at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando.

1 – One player made the SportsCenter top ten from the Bay Area after Friday night, and that was Alonso’s Malik Jackson. The sophomore hauled in a fake punt, took off, and flipped over a Sickles defender, and stuck the landing before he was taken down by the Gryphons. It was all over the internet in about 24 hours, and even SportsCenter deemed it as their number one play from Friday.

Here’s some players to watch out for in tonight’s matchups:

Kevaris Thomas, 2018 QB, Lake Gibson:

Thomas, who received his official scholarship offer from the USF on Saturday, had a pretty good game against Kathleen in Week One. Thomas was 10 of 17 for 191 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the Red Devils. Look for the junior quarterback to have another big game through the air as he will need to have a big game if he wants to get the victory against the Blue Devils.

DJ Williams, 2017 RB, Bloomingdale:

The Bulls relied on their rushing game throughout the majority of their victory against Newsome, and Williams had quit the game. He had 122 yards on 21 carries with one touchdown. He’ll have a much more difficult task against the Gaither front seven, which includes Estefano Feliciano (Old Dominion commit) and DeCalon Brooks (FSU commit). His success will lead to the Bulls’ success this evening.

Patrick Keenan, 2017 DE, Blake:

The Yellow Jackets had 16 sacks against Robinson in Week One, and Keenan was responsible for four of those. He’ll be a major asset against Steinbrenner, as the Blake defense will try to make sure QB Cason Byrd doesn’t get comfortable in the backfield.

As always, we’ve got questions about tonight’s action, and will those questions be answered? We’ll see what happens, but here’s just some of our many questions:

Speaking of Blake, will their defense be as dominant as they were against Robinson? It’s unlikely that they will take the quarterback down 16 times like they did last week, but it’s something that the Steinbrenner offensive line will have to keep in mind this evening.

Is Ft. Meade in trouble? Okay, okay, they lost 12-9 to Hardee last week. But does that really mean they’re in trouble? I really don’t think so. They’ve got some work to do to prove that they can make a deep run in the playoffs again, and they’ve got a chance to do that against Tenoroc this evening.

How will Kathleen respond? The Red Devils got shut out against Lake Gibson last week, and they’ve got a chance to get to 1-1 with an away game at Haines City this evening. Watch for Kathleen to come out with a game plan to attack the Hornets right away and to try and get their first win of the season.