Wildcats football bows out, basketball heats up

It was the lowest margin of victory that Apopka had escaped by all year, but it was still a victory as the Blue Darters rolled past Winter Park in the regional semifinals in football postseason play.

The 31-7 scoring gap took a while for Apopka to build, with the Wildcats putting up the first score, a rare occurrence this season against the 11-1 Blue Darters. The touchdown came courtesy of running back Rafael Lopes’ feet on a 27-yard scamper. They held that lead for a few minutes until Apopka running back Robert Thomas got going.

Then it was all Apopka as Thomas stormed to nearly 200 yards on the ground, with three rushing touchdowns on his own to lead the Blue Darters to the regional championship game.

For the Wildcats (9-3), led by quarterback J.P. Colton with 133 yards on an 83 percent completion rate, the season ended at Apopka, though it was one of the strongest the team has had in half a decade.

Basketball

The Wildcats boys basketball team blew past two rebuilding years to start this season with a 3-0 record after destroying East River 67-28 on Nov. 21. The Wildcats already have a district win under their belts with a 62-20 domination of Colonial on Nov. 19.

They play Orlando Freedom (3-0) at 8:30 p.m. at Wekiva High School at the Florida Metro Challenge on Nov. 30 before taking a 10-day break.

The girls basketball team (4-1) was also off to a streaking start going 3-0 to start the season. But Nov. 20 they suffered their first loss of the season at Lake Highland, 68-64 after letting the Highlanders (5-0) come back with a 22-11 run in the fourth quarter.

The girls bounced back with a 47-39 romp over University on Nov. 22. They played Winter Springs at press time but return to their home court at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 to take on Boone, which is 2-2 on the season.