Lecanto, Gulf clash Friday night with sights set on taking one step closer towards 1st ever district title

LECANTO, FLORIDA- The chase for history is on Friday night when the Gulf Buccaneers visit the Lecanto Panthers in a Class 3A-Suburban, District 6 matchup.

Catch here in this game is neither program can stake the claim to have ever won a district championship. In around 60 years of districts being around in the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) and 100 years, the Buccaneers have never won a district title.

A Gulf victory would almost assuredly hand the Buccaneers their first ever district crown. A Lecanto win would definitely give them a better shot, but the Panthers would need some things to happen as well to help them out.

When the two teams meet on the field, plenty will be at stake amongst the two programs that are vying to clinch an automatic berth into the postseason. The road to this point has been somewhat bumpy for each team.

Gulf (5-2) started off the year with plenty of expectations across the board and for good reason. Coming off a 3-6 first season under head coach Sean Eperjesi, the Buccaneers were expected to make a jump in Year 2 under the former Gulf Middle School lead man.

Instead, some concerns arose after blowout losses to Mitchell and Hudson, raising the eyebrow that Gulf may be on their way to taking a step back. The Buccaneers heard the social media noise and have responded with five straight wins and most coming via blowouts.

The improved play of junior quarterback Ethan Holewski has to be taken into account of why Gulf has been playing a lot better. Gulf’s signal caller has thrown for 983 yards, completing 51 percent of his passes for eight touchdowns versus an impressive zero interceptions. 

His decisive decision making as of late has catapulted the Buccaneers to levels they haven’t seen since 2014, the last time the program reached the playoffs. Now Holewski and crew have their sights set on the playoffs, but must get through a battle tested Lecanto bunch.

Lecanto (4-2) had had an interesting time as of late after stroking out of the gates as the front runner to win the district favorite. The Panthers have somewhat stumbled in a recent 34-0 blowout loss to River Ridge, a team Gulf defeated 20-13 earlier this season.

RELATED: River Ridge stymies Lecanto’s run game and cruises to key 3A-Suburban, District 6 victory

There’s a lot of reasons to like this Lecanto team, though, as they feature a tough defense led by tenacious linebacker Travis Labelle and a strong rushing attack led by running backs Amir Wilson and Darius Gainer. 

JT Tipton at quarterback hasn’t been asked to throw all too often, but will be called upon against a blitz happy Gulf defense on Friday night. 

Panthers head coach Chop Alexander wasn’t particularly a big fan of when his team had to reschedule the River Ridge game, but knew each team played under the same circumstances because of Hurricane Ian. 

Playing somewhat lackadaisical, the Panthers never looked right against the Royal Knights. Lecanto bounced back in a 28-7 rivalry win over Crystal River on Friday night. 

“(River Ridge) had to make the same adjustments we had to make,” Alexander said of the makeup game. 

Now his Lecanto team will get a shot to stake claim to putting themselves into position to win its first district crown versus a Buccaneers team looking to do the same. 7:30 p.m., Lecanto High School. History could be made.

Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.