A little more bulletin board material for the local high school football teams in our area. After all, the smart people say all publicity is good publicity.
I’ll be in my bomb shelter if you need me.
Mosley (2-0) 35 at Niceville (1-1) 14
I was recently corrected: Mosley has won the last three meetings in a row between these two teams – two of those meetings have been in Niceville.
Niceville’s backfield has had a hard time getting things going at the start of the year – at least statistically, thanks to the shellacking they took to Alabama’s Prattville High School in the first week of the year.
Prattville made six sacks, an interception, and kept the Eagles to negative rushing yards in that game. The West Florida game, which took a squad from the other side of the spectrum and placed them toe-to-toe with the Eagles, saw Niceville’s offense light up the scoreboard – while still giving up 14 points. West Florida scored first, but Niceville rallied in the second quarter to put the game beyond the Jaguars’ reach.
Now, the Eagles will march into their stadium for the third and final game of their homestand – this time against those Mosley Dolphins that kept victory just out of reach with an OT win last year.
Meanwhile, the Mosley Dolphins have fought out two knife fights to the fifteenth round by a combined margin of THREE points against a tough Choctaw team and a STACKED Godby squad staffed by the best local talent all of Tallahassee can offer.
Molsey has the more impressive resume this year by a long shot. They’ve not only had to fight hard for wins, but they’ve gone and gotten them. Niceville has played a game they were never really in and another game their opponent faded away in after the first half.
Mosley has been tested by fire – I have them beating Niceville in this one, 35-14
Florida High (2-0) 28 at South Walton (2-0) 31
We are going to be live for our show at this game for a reason: If Choctaw @ Mosley is the best regular-season billing we could find this year, this one is a close second. Florida High’s head coach Jarrod Hickman leads what has to be one of the most complete teams North of Orlando.
Despite losing their all-state quarterback Jayme Miller, the Seminoles have continued to succeed. One of their starting running backs, Brisyn Brown, has stepped in admirably and made some excellent passes to the highly scouted and touted Ar’Tavian ‘Bubba’ Brown. Brown, who holds offers to just about every Power 5 program of note in the Southeast, takes what Brisyn gives him and runs like a hybrid between the smooth form of a gazelle and the raw power of a Ram 3500 pickup truck through utterly defenseless secondaries. If SoWal Head Coach Phil Tisa wants to stop the Browns and get his (still very good) defense off the field, he will have to stop the offense before they get the ball rolling down the field. If not, it’s going to be a long night for Rice Commit and 2025 MBN Emerald Coast Elite Defensive Player of the Year Connor Rooney and the rest of the South Walton defense.
Alternatively, if South Walton can put enough pressure on Bryson Brown to make him make bad decisions South Walton could effectively shut down this team. But they’ll have to get too fast and force those bad decisions early to claim the narrative and the momentum.
Something to know: for a high did cough up the ball several times on turnovers in their last game. A single drive killer could make all the difference in this one.
on the other side of the ball JD Brown and Company have plenty of opportunities to show what they’re made of – They’ll have to if south walton wants a chance in this game. Florida Highs defense Rest on the back of some of the most veteran players on a field in North Florida. Most of these young men have dozens of starts under their belt and are looking to turn the corner into the Florida Peninsula and win it all come playoff time.
I’m giving south walton the slightest of edges in this one and will pick the Seahawks to win it for the first time in their history, 31-28.
Crestview (0-2) 24 @ Pine Forest (0-2) 14
Pine Forest has taken a couple of tough losses in the last several weeks: First a single-point loss to Washington and then an 8-0 snoozer to Escambia. Those losses aren’t good enough for me to consider them quality compared to the losses Crestview has suffered in August. Crestview took a bad loss to Enterprise just last week because of a manpower shortage due to injuries. Up to nine starters were out at one point in the game with something or another gone wrong.
But their first game at home against Lincoln showed that Crestview can hang with some of the better teams in the state this year. I don’t think Pine Forest is one of those teams. As long as Crestview shows up and plays diligently (and doesn’t make any silly celebration mistakes), I think they win this one by 17. I have the Bulldogs prevailing in this contest 31-14.
Choctaw (0-2) 28 @ Pace (1-1) 21
Choctaw Indians will have their elite-level defensive coordinator in Terrance Brooks, back from his internship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week. The defense hasn’t been the problem the last couple of weeks, anything helps. My guess without any firsthand knowledge of the situation is that we’ll see a lot more of sophomore quarterback Isaiah Collins then we will of junior quarterback Baker Giles in this game. Giles got the start in the first two contests against a very good Mosley and then elite Auburn team but failed to make top level passes that were needed to beat those incredibly good teams. Collins got into the game against Auburn late and immediately made an impact with a touchdown pass. My guess is that a good impression goes a long way and Collins will at least share some of the quarterbacking duties against a recently embarrassed but still very dangerous pace patriot team.
The Patriots took a 20-point loss to Pensacola Catholic and what could be fairly seen as a season debut for the Crusaders. Most people knew they were gonna be pretty good this year. A smashing start against a pace team that was talented as one of the best if not the best in the panhandle left a few questions about Catholics ability to win– And opened up a couple of our paces.
both teams have a lot of questions going into this game and fortunately or unfortunately we will have some answers by the end of it. This game is at Pace, and both teams have good coaching staff so my guess is that this one will probably go into overtime and end with the Choctaw winning 28 to 21
Freeport (1-1) 55 @ Gulf Breeze (0-2) 14
Freeport has proven they can score a lot, thanks to their top running back, Dylan Louthain, and quarterback, Carter Nunes. The thing they have not yet proven is that their defense can make stops with regularity. This is the perfect game for new head coach Tommy John’s and Company to tweak their defense and find out what works best for this team.
I don’t think the result of this one will be in doubt, but a quote from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe that I heard this week conveniently sticks in my head: “It is a tragedy to suffer the pain and not learn the lesson.”
Fort Walton Beach (1-1) 24 @ West Florida Tech (0-2) 14
Much like Niceville this year, Fort Walton Beach has been in a game where they crushed the other team and a game where they got crushed. That doesn’t help us determine exactly where they are, but I can tell you that Lavin McDaniel has done a pretty good job thus far. McDaniel has had to run to get space to throw the ball and run to get those last couple of yards when they have one, and has had to run for survival when they haven’t.
Fort Walton Beach’s defense has done a very good job with short fields. Sure, they’ve given up plenty of points, but I think that has more to do with where the ball has started on the field than with the defense that’s playing. I expect them to look like a much stouter unit than they might have against South Walton. But to be clear, I thought they looked pretty good against South Walton, considering how many weapons that team has this year.
