Wekiva earns revenge in quarters
Mustangs reverse result of September game by blanking West Orange
Wekiva refused to let this one slip away.
The top-ranked Mustangs (10-1) outgained visiting West Orange (7-4) by a 393-63 margin Friday while coasting to a 16-0 win in a Class 8A, Region 1 quarterfinal.
Wekiva blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Warriors on Sept. 28, leading to a 30-29 loss and its only setback of the regular season.
“We’ve been waiting for this game for a couple weeks now,” said Wekiva senior James Lynch Jr. “We knew we’d have to play them either in the first or second round, so we were already waiting for this game to come.”
Wekiva advances to host the winner of Oviedo and Apopka in the second round on Friday.
The Mustangs scored on their final two possessions of the first half against West Orange to break open a game that volleyed back and forth with punts.
Junior quarterback Larry Preston finished off a pair of eight-play drives by rushing and throwing for touchdowns. Each drive included a conversion on fourth down for the Mustangs.
Preston reached the end zone on a run of 9 yards with nearly four minutes left in the second quarter. He then found Renardo Green over the middle for a 14-yard touchdown with four seconds to spare after the defense forced West Orange to go threeand-out.
Bryan Wilson added a 24-yard field goal to cap the first drive of the second half.
Norell Pollard had two sacks in the first half and Green intercepted a pass late in the third quarter to help extend the Wekiva defense’s shutout streak to six straight games.
Supreme Richardson carried the load out of the backfield for Wekiva by rushing 25 times for 171 yards. Jalen Williams caught eight passes for 104 yards.