No. 14 Lake Brantley Patriots at Spruce Creek Hawks

When: Friday, 7:30pm

Where: Pop Johnson Field, Port Orange (801 Taylor Road)

TV: BHSN (Channel 47 and HD 1147)

Coaches: Lake Brantley – Dave Delfiacco (2nd, 7-4); Spruce Creek – Andy Price (4th, 17-14)

About the matchup: High school football is back. And though Friday night’s game doesn’t count toward a team’s regular season record, every player puts an emphasis on winning.

Lake Brantley is coming off one of its best seasons in program history. The Patriots won 11 games, second most ever, and went undefeated in the regular season. There’s a huge void at quarterback with the graduation of three-year starter Jared Bernhardt, who signed to play lacrosse at Maryland. Without Bernhardt, the backfield remains a strength with Trace Christian, Paris Hennington, Devin Frater and Wekiva transfer Carnelious Dennison. Christian, who rushed for 1,286 yards last year, holds 22 college offers, including Indiana, Louisville, Mississippi State and Kentucky. Lake Brantley’s defense returns eight starters, including last year’s leading tackler Mark Mulhall. The secondary projects to be among the area’s best with FBS prospect Jalen Lee, lockdown corner Eric Butler and hard hitting safety Matt Hudak.

Spruce Creek hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008 but Price believes this team has the talent to reach the postseason. The Hawks return only one starter on offense – quarterback Kyle Minckler – who projects to be one of the top passers in Central Florida. Minckler started the last six games for Spruce Creek and threw for 1,547 yards and eight touchdowns. Seabreeze running back transfer Riley Oldham will join Minckler in the backfield while the Hawks have every class represented with their starting wide receivers – freshman Maximus Campbell, sophomore Hayden Flood, junior Jaquez Lord and senior Josh Tse, who opted to run cross country instead of play football last season. The linebacking corps projects to be strong with Jelani Bland, Max Molina, Isaiah Poku and Daniel Diacont. David Youkon, a returning starter at inside linebacker, will miss Friday’s game with an ankle injury.

Three and out:

1. Lake Brantley opened in 1983 and Delfiacco is just the third coach in school history. The others are Fred Almon (1983-96) and Clayton (1997-2012, 14-15)  

2. In last year’s Kickoff Classic, Lake Brantley the first 35 points and cruised to a 35-14 victory.

3. Spruce Creek and Lake Brantley met in in the playoffs in 2007 and ’08 with the Hawks winning both games.