Football Preview: Lakeland Dreadnaughts vs. Winter Haven Blue Devils
Lakeland has gone 10-0 against Winter Haven recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Lakeland Dreadnaughts will square off against the Winter Haven Blue Devils at 7:30 p.m. Lakeland will be strutting in after a victory while Winter Haven will be coming in after a defeat.
Lakeland's upcoming match probably won't be as stressful as their last, when they took on another nationally ranked opponent: Lake Mary, who was ranked 82nd at the time (Lakeland was ranked 24th). Lakeland pulled ahead with a 35-34 photo finish over Lake Mary on Friday. The win was nothing new for the Dreadnaughts as they're now sitting on eight straight dating back to last season.
Zander Smith was nothing short of spectacular: he threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 10.5 yards per attempt, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. That's the most total yards he has posted since back in October of 2023.
Meanwhile, Winter Haven lost 34-14 to Knoxville Catholic on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Blue Devils can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' football rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 188th in Florida, while the Fighting Irish are ranked 24th in Tennessee).
Winter Haven wouldn't let Knoxville Catholic keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Winter Haven can thank Micah Mcdaniel and Vario Mcbride for forcing both of them. Mcdaniel also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble and making four total tackles.
Lakeland pushed their record up to 2-0 with that victory, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Winter Haven, they now have a losing record at 1-2.
Lakeland strolled past Winter Haven in their previous matchup back in September of 2023 by a score of 28-12. Will Lakeland repeat their success, or does Winter Haven have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
