Winter Haven is 0-10 against Lakeland since October of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Winter Haven Blue Devils will be playing in front of their home fans against the Lakeland Dreadnaughts at 7:30 p.m.
Winter Haven came up short against Knoxville Catholic on Friday, falling 34-14. 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.
Meanwhile, Lakeland entered their tilt with Lake Mary on Friday with seven consecutive wins dating back to last season but they'll enter their next game with eight. In a tight contest that could have gone either way, they made off with a 35-34 win over the Rams.
Zander Smith was a one-man wrecking crew for Lakeland as 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 Smith has posted since back in October of 2023.
Winter Haven's loss ended a three-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 1-2. As for Lakeland, their victory was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 2-0.
Winter Haven lost to Lakeland at home by a decisive 28-12 margin when the teams last played back in September of 2023. Can Winter Haven avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
