The Fighting Seminoles fought for an impressive 9-1 record last year and went far into playoffs until the Apopka Blue Darters played an amazing game and won by 1 point. Fast forward to this year, the Seminoles are still the amazing team they once were. In the first game of the season, against the Riverview Rams, QB (quarterback) Luke Rucker threw for 179 yards and 2 touchdowns, the defense was having a field day with the Rams letting zero points get past them, the game ended 48-0. The Osceola Kowboys had an efficient running game and running back (RB) Taevion Swint ran for a crazy 165 yards, the Seminole defense was looking tight but Seminole won 28-27. 

  The Treasure Coast Titans came off of a 10-2 season and was Seminoles next opponent, the game started off slow with only 9 points being scored in the first quarter, then things picked up and after the first half the Seminoles defense didn’t let anyone score and ended the game in a 41-22 victory. The next game Seminole played the Evans Trojans and didn’t let them touch the endzone once, the Seminoles finished the game 51-0.

  Seminole went on to play the Venice Indians which won the Football State Championship the year prior (2021), Seminole was expected to win since Venice was only 1-2 at the time but Venice showed they still had the championship mindset and won 24-17. A heartbreaking loss to the Seminoles but the next game against Cocoa the game was tied 29-29 and went on to overtime and Seminole scored a touchdown last minute to win 35-29. Deland hosted the next game, the Seminoles started QB David Parks and he threw 91 yards to get Seminole another win 27-10. 

  David Parks started for the next game against Lake Branley and scored 3 touchdowns along with 129 yards and got the 37-7 win over Lake Brantley. The game everyone was hyped about was the Lake Mary vs Seminole game, two rivals go head-to-head at Lake Mary High School, Luke started this game and gained 96 yards, but David Parks closed the game out with 76 yards and 2 touchdowns, the Seminoles left Lake Mary with a massive win 43-6. The next game Seminole played was Apopka, the game started scoreless until Apopka scored a rushing touchdown. Seminole answered back and scored a touchdown to tie the game. After the first half, the second half was a lot of back and forth scoring but then Seminole gained a 10 point lead, Apopka scored a touchdown and made the score 23-21. Apopka rushed the ball down to field goal range and kicked the game-winning field goal to end the game 23-24.

    After the loss, Seminole didn’t win district champs but they were still in the playoffs since they ended the regular season with a 8-2 record. The 1st seed Seminoles went up against the 8th-seed Mandarin Mustangs. The Seminoles started the first half 16-0 making it look easy. Mandarin started to wake up and scored two touchdowns, Mandarin scored another to take the lead 16-21. Down to the last couple minutes, the Mustangs are winning by 4 points looking to knock Seminole out of the first round but Seminole got a touchdown to take the lead with 4 minutes left. Seminole needed to wake up if they wanted any chance to keep going in the playoffs. 

  One of the most shocking games was their next game. Lake Mary came to Seminoles field for round 2. Lake Mary just came off a huge win against Hagerty. The game started off with Seminole scoring making it a 8-0 game. The next score came from the Rams in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter, Lake Mary got another touchdown. With one minute left in the game, Seminole was close to the endzone and went for the game winning touchdown but they missed it. Heartbreakingly, Lake Mary won against Seminole for the first time in years and Seminole was knocked out of the playoffs against their rivals. While Seminole may have lost in the playoffs, thet still have many years to improve and win state.  There were many good things that came from the season like winning most games by at least 10 points, almost beating the team that went to the state championship, and being the first seed in the playoffs. Hopefully Seminole can win state next year!