Football Preview: Cocoa Beach Minutemen vs. St. Edward's Pirates
The Cocoa Beach Minutemen have the luxury of staying home for another week and will welcome the St. Edward's Pirates at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Cocoa Beach's defense has only allowed 13.8 points per game this season, so St. Edward's offense will have their work cut out for them.
Last Friday, Cocoa Beach earned a 16-7 win over Winter Springs.
The critical scores for Cocoa Beach came from Brennan Berk and Ryan Rogers.
Cocoa Beach wouldn't let Winter Springs keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Cocoa Beach can thank Kyler Coe and Preston Sherrill for forcing both of them. Coe is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made seven or more in the last three games he's played dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, St. Edward's entered their tilt with Okeechobee on Friday with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. They strolled past the Brahmans with points to spare, taking the game 40-22. The Pirates' offense stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most points they've scored all season.
It was another big night for Nate Sparkman, who threw for 325 yards and five touchdowns while completing 76.7% of his passes. Jaden Jackson helped Sparkman out on the ground, rushing for 103 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries.
St. Edward's defense stepped up as well, laying out Christopher Evans. four times. In that department, Gary Anderson was the leader with two sacks. Ethan Ball was another major factor on D, picking up a sack and making eight total tackles (3.0 for loss) in addition to snagging an interception.
Cocoa Beach's victory was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 3-1. As for St. Edward's, their win ended a four-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 4-1.
Cocoa Beach came up short against St. Edward's in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 27-20. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Sparkman, who threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns. Now that Cocoa Beach knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
