Irma sacks Friday schedule

Bracing for the feared arrival of Hurricane Irma, area high schools and school districts made the decision on Tuesday to move Week 3 football games up a day.

Public school districts in Seminole and Volusia counties first made the call to shift all Friday athletic events to Thursday. Orange County followed suit, as did a number of private schools throughout the area.

Irma, which is forecast to begin impacting Florida by the end of the week, has already caused more than 30 area games to be switched to Thursday.

Bishop Moore, the No. 7 team in the Sentinel Super 16, is still hoping to travel to Severn, Md., for Friday’s game against Archbishop Spalding. But most of the area’s other big games are now set for Thursday night.

That includes a pair of Seminole County rivalry games: Hagerty at Oviedo and Lake Howell at Winter Springs.

A Top 10 showdown of unbeatens between No. 5 Wekiva and No. 9 Winter Park at Showalter Field will also be played with one less day of preparation.

No. 1 Apopka plays on the road Thursday at Lakeland.

Groveland South Lake and Lake Minneola, who completed Friday’s postponed game against each other on Tuesday night, are both now scheduled to take the field for the third time in a week and play their second game in three days on Thursday.

Daytona Beach Mainland lost a home game to the Volusia County decision because Treasure Coast did not agree on a makeup date. Daytona Beach Seabreeze was already scheduled to host Flagler Palm Coast on Thursday at Municipal Stadium, a venue it shares with Mainland.

Orange City University, which had a Week 2 game at Sebastian River canceled, picked up a Thursday road game against Lakeland Lake Gibson to replace what originally was a bye for the Titans.