SEFFNER, FLA. --

Certain things you can count on. The sun rising and setting. And Armwood’s defense dominating.

“They’re so physical and fast,” Armwood junior Nolan Troyer said. “It’s just fun to watch.”

Armwood’s defense has been must-see football for nearly two decades. If defense wins championships, this Hawks D that limits opponents to four points a game in the postseason has them on track for another title run.

“They’re just playing as a cohesive unit like I haven’t seen in a long time here,” head coach Evan Davis said.

That’s high praise for a unit that had to replace eight starters from last year’s state runner-up team. Forget rebuilding, Armwood simply reloaded. And the Hawks offense, the biggest benefactors of having to face that defense every day in practice. Armwood has put up an average of 50 points in the postseason.

“It makes us 1,000 times better cause we know that we’re going up against the best defense in the state every single day,” Troyer said, “and we know that we’re going to get better in that way every single day.”

It’s a no-name defense, one built of collective players, not overshadowed by a four or five star prospect.

“No matter who you’re with or where you come from, different backgrounds, we’re all family,” junior safety Jalil Core said. “And we all have the same goal, same mindset. We all want to work and get better.”

That’s the thing about this defense. The pieces of the puzzle change year after year, but they all fit together.

 “We had to come up what this year’s edition was going to look like,” Davis said. “We have a blueprint, we have a mold and we got our kids to fit that mold.”