Lakeland 20, Apopka 17.

[skyway]

Great, if not pretty, game. Lakeland learned earlier they will be without 5* DL Gabe Dindy for the rest of the season. And they already had the poor showing against Lake Gibson. So, this was a good win over a good Apopka team. Lakeland had no running game against a stout Apopka D, but has WRs who are potentially the best pair they've ever had. So, they hit several big plays in the passing game. It was a tight, back-and-forth affair with Apopka busting a big run to go up 17-14 with 5:10 to play. Lakeland started from their own 13, piddled around, and found themselves with 3rd and roughly 25 to go, with just a few minutes to play. QB Mason Martin scrambled for about 12 yards to set up 4th and about 12. Martin hit Soph athlete D'Marius Rucker for a 4th down conversion. Lakeland managed to march the rest of the way down, all through the air, and won the game on a TD pass to Jr. Tyler Williams with 53.5 seconds left. Williams has a chance to be the best WR to come out of Lakeland as a 6'4.5" 185lb WR with blazing speed. Great game, just like the last time the teams tangled at Bryant Stadium in 2017.

[Ray Icaza]

12 hours ago, skyway said:

Great, if not pretty, game. Lakeland learned earlier they will be without 5* DL Gabe Dindy for the rest of the season. And they already had the poor showing against Lake Gibson. So, this was a good win over a good Apopka team. Lakeland had no running game against a stout Apopka D, but has WRs who are potentially the best pair they've ever had. So, they hit several big plays in the passing game. It was a tight, back-and-forth affair with Apopka busting a big run to go up 17-14 with 5:10 to play. Lakeland started from their own 13, piddled around, and found themselves with 3rd and roughly 25 to go, with just a few minutes to play. QB Mason Martin scrambled for about 12 yards to set up 4th and about 12. Martin hit Soph athlete D'Marius Rucker for a 4th down conversion. Lakeland managed to march the rest of the way down, all through the air, and won the game on a TD pass to Jr. Tyler Williams with 53.5 seconds left. Williams has a chance to be the best WR to come out of Lakeland as a 6'4.5" 185lb WR with blazing speed. Great game, just like the last time the teams tangled at Bryant Stadium in 2017.

Props to Lakeland as they showed no panic during the final 5 minutes of the game.  Just to be accurate the final 86 yards were aided by 29 yards in penalties on that one final drive.  The most questionable was a personal foul for 15 yards around midfield.  Reviewing that play repeatedly, it is obvious a Lakeland OL wrestles an APK DL to the ground which should have been holding.  He then gets on top of him and when the APK player gets up to push him off of him the ref calls a personal foul.  Lakeland may have delivered a win anyway, but that called sure helped.  This just happened to be the game I chose to watch since our home team had a bye week and just my observation as a casual fan.

[skyway]

3 minutes ago, Ray Icaza said:

Props to Lakeland as they showed no panic during the final 5 minutes of the game.  Just to be accurate the final 86 yards were aided by 29 yards in penalties on that one final drive.  The most questionable was a personal foul for 15 yards around midfield.  Reviewing that play repeatedly, it is obvious a Lakeland OL wrestles an APK DL to the ground which should have been holding.  He then gets on top of him and when the APK player gets up to push him off of him the ref calls a personal foul.  Lakeland may have delivered a win anyway, but that called sure helped.  This just happened to be the game I chose to watch since our home team had a bye week and just my observation as a casual fan.

It was certainly a tight game with some mistakes. Lakeland hurt itself with a lot of false starts and offsides penalties in big situations, including one when Apopka was lined up to punt. 

It was certainly odd to see a Lakeland team win a game without a running attack to speak of. I think Castle needs to call games with this team like he did back in the late 70s and 80s, meaning a fairly balanced offense with plenty of passes on 1st down.

[Ray Icaza]

1 hour ago, skyway said:

It was certainly a tight game with some mistakes. Lakeland hurt itself with a lot of false starts and offsides penalties in big situations, including one when Apopka was lined up to punt. 

It was certainly odd to see a Lakeland team win a game without a running attack to speak of. I think Castle needs to call games with this team like he did back in the late 70s and 80s, meaning a fairly balanced offense with plenty of passes on 1st down.

You are right, the 4th and 4 around midfield where Lakeland jumped off sides could have been a very costly penalty.  Their defense came thru as it did most of the night and it didn't cost them any points as this type of penalty usually does.  That was my biggest surprise that Lakeland exhibited zero running ability for most of the game.  It improved a bit once the QB started keeping the ball on option runs and making things happen with his legs.  I was extremely impressed with his composure throughout.  Good luck to both teams for the balance of their seasons.

[skyway]

Video recap here