Volusia High School Football Preview: 10/7

Hurricane Ian took away what would have been an exciting weekend of divisional matchups across the 3S and 4S District 9 Divisions of Central Florida. I truly hope this article reaches spectators well and that they are recovering and returning home to good news. If missing high school football was the worst part of last week, lucky for you, those games have been rescheduled to be played later in October. Here are the make-up dates for the cancelled games caused by Hurricane Ian. * Deltona Wolves (5-0) @ Seabreeze Sandcrabs (0-4) – Monday, Oct 17, 7:00 pm* Pine Ridge Panthers (0-5) @ Mainland Buccaneers – Friday, Oct 21, 7:00 pm* New Smyrna Beach Barracudas (2-1) @ University Titans (3-1) – Mon, Oct 31, 7:00 pm Another rescheduled game was played on Oct. 3, where the DeLand Bulldogs lost their home matchup against the Spruce Creek Hawks 44-38. Both teams are now 2-3 on the season. As for this week, there are seven regularly scheduled games, two of them within three days for the New Smyrna Beach Barracudas. The Barracudas (2-1) last played on Sept. 16 in a dominating 44-6 win versus the now 3-2 Crystal River Pirates. On Friday 10/7, the Barracudas travel to Land O’ Lakes, FL, to take on the Sunlake Seahawks (1-4), who haven’t won since their opening game in late August. Just three days later, Monday 10/10, New Smyrna wishes to ride momentum into a home matchup versus the 3-0 Eagles of Central Florida Christian Academy out of Ocoee, FL. The Barracudas will get a little more rest after that game, where they then host Sebastian River HS (3-1) four days later, who has allowed only 26 points all season. The fatigue of three games in seven days for NSBHS could play a crucial factor in the outcome of their games. The remaining six games for this week all occur on Friday 10/7 at 7:00 pm. The Seabreeze Sandcrabs (0-4), coached by Pat Brown, travel to Satellite Beach to play the Satellite Scorpions (3-2), looking to pick up their first win of the season after falling to the Deland Bulldogs 44-20 at home two weeks ago. The Sandcrabs have been a team to deal with adversity and playing from behind all season, especially with the heavy run attacks from Bartram Trail and DeLand. Both Seabreeze and Satellite average less than 20 points per game, so spectators may get a nice close game in Satellite Beach. The Pine Ridge Panthers (0-5) host the Mount Dora Hurricanes (2-2) who have been on a hot streak as of late, winning their past two matchups by one point each, scoring 33 and 48 in consecutive weeks after scoring 26 total in the two matchups before. The Pine Ridge Panthers are also looking to shift momentum at the halfway point in the season. After allowing four straight games with 40+ points and scoring one total touchdown, the Panthers changed the narrative by losing a nail-biter to Lake Howell 14-12 and look to build on that success for the rest of the season. The Spruce Creek Hawks (2-3) will be hosting the Atlantic Coast Stingrays (0-5) just days after they took the short trip to DeLand for their matchup against Rick Darlington’s Bulldogs (2-3) earlier in the week. The Hawks were on a 3-game losing streak, generating little to no offense, and allowing a lot on defense. This changed in their Monday win against the Bulldogs where they scored 44 points, 17 in the last quarter. The AC Stingrays have also produced almost nothing, scoring 19 points on the entire season. In addition, they have allowed progressively more points in each of their five losses (133 points scored against total). Darlington’s DeLand Bulldogs (2-3) host the Deltona Wolves (5-0). DeLand recently defeated Seabreeze (0-4) moderately with their smash mouth football run attack, convincing play-action, and stifling defense. However, this game seems to be an uphill battle for DeLand, trying to defend the Deltona Wolves, scoring 43.2 points per game, less than a week after allowing 44 points to Spruce Creek. The Mainland Buccaneers (3-1) host the University Titans (3-2) at Daytona Municipal Stadium. The Bucs recently came off an explosive, high-scoring 39-26 win in the home stadium of the previously undefeated Lake Minneola Hawks. The Titans are on a three-game win streak after they opened the season with two losses, scoring seven points each. This game will be broadcasted on WNDB, so tune in to FM 93.5 or AM 1150, or show up for what seems to be a great matchup across the two conferences. As always, the game of football is unpredictable, dangerous but exhilarating. However, the priority of the sport is always safety. Choose a game, be a good sport and let the kids play.