Winter Park, Wekiva clash again with state trip at stake
A little luck can go a long way during the course of a high school football season.
Winter Park has experienced that firsthand since a stifling Wekiva defense silenced them for much of the way in September. The Wildcats scored in the final minute for a 10-6 win.
Winter Park (12-0), ranked No. 1 in the Sentinel Super 16, rode that effort to an unbeaten regular season while No. 2 Wekiva (11-1) rebounded to go unblemished the rest of the way.
They’ll meet again tonight in a Class 8A region final at Showalter Field at 7:30 p.m. in what will be the fourth clash between the programs in two seasons.
The winner hosts either No. 3 Dr. Phillips (10-2) or Sarasota Riverview (11-1) in next week’s state semifinal.
“To go this many games without a loss, you’ve got to be sometimes more lucky than good,” Winter Park coach Tim Shifflet said. “So in some certain situations, maybe so in that first Wekiva game, we got lucky. But sometimes that’s what it’s about, and maybe we’ll get lucky again Friday, who knows.”
There’s no easy way to forecast how a matchup such as this might play out. Not after Wekiva dominated the Wildcats 35-7 in the regular season in 2016, only to go on to lose the rematch 30-21 in the first round of the playoffs.
Both teams have continued to improve this season since that night in September. And coupled with what’s expected to be a vibrant atmosphere in Winter Park, that’s what makes this outing one of the more intriguing playoff games throughout the state.
“This game is personal,” said Wekiva junior defensive back Brandon Hill. “They kicked us out of the playoffs in the first round last year and they gave us our only loss this year, so we really want to go out there and take care of business.”
Hill said he feels the firsttime district champion Mustangs have had a different mindset since that setback in what’s turned out to be a historic season for a school that opened in 2007.
“It’s like we actually needed that loss so we would know we never want to feel that way again,” he said. “Ever since we’ve been saying, ‘I’ve got your back and you’ve got my back,’ and if nothing else we’re going to fight for anybody on the team.”
The turning point for the Mustangs since that first meeting has been a change at quarterback, where Brandon Williams was inserted to add a dual-threat dimension that was lacking early in the year.
But no matter who lines up under center, Wekiva will need to avoid costly mistakes that resulted in its only loss, which included four turnovers in the second half and a fourth-down pass that went for a Winter Park touchdown after a late fumble.
“There’s definitely some unfinished business with these guys after playing in such a tight game and losing basically with 40 seconds left,” Wekiva coach Rich Bedesem said. “There were a lot of opportunities where we could have won that game.”
But it was the Wildcats who notched the early signature win.
And thanks in part to the improved play of refurbished offensive and defensive lines, each of which entered the season with a new cast of starters, the Wildcats are right back where it all ended last season when they lost at home in the region finals to Seminole.
Winter Park’s senior leading tackler Cullen Honohan said the team immediately hit the reset button after wrapping up its unbeaten regular season, and that the accomplishment was no longer the focus.
But it’s given the Wildcats the confidence they’ve needed to get through close games and eventually return to this spot in the bracket.
“It’s always in the back of our minds that this is the game that we needed to get back to, to break that barrier in the region final and move on and be better as a team,” Honohan said. “It’s been driving us pretty hard, to get back here and get it right this time.”