It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Lake Wales had no problem doing just that on Friday. They really took it to the New Smyrna Beach Barracudas for the full four quarters, racking up a 52-19 victory. Given the Highlanders' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 73rd, while the Barracudas are ranked 213th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Brycen Levidiotis continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 321 yards and five touchdowns while completing 87.5% of his passes. Kaneilius Purdy did his part for the team as well, scoring a TD off of 105 receiving yards.
Lake Wales didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Cedarius Christian and Cam'Ron Davis. Davis also set a new season high mark in total tackles with ten. Lake Wales got some further help from Samauri Wilson: he picked up a sack, forced a fumble, and made 11 total tackles (2.0 for loss).
The win made it two in a row for Lake Wales and bumps their season record up to 7-3. As for New Smyrna Beach, their loss ended a four-game streak of away wins and brought them to 8-3.
Lake Wales will face off against Vanguard at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Vanguard will roll in looking for their tenth straight victory, something Lake Wales surely won't give up without a fight. New Smyrna Beach does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
