Winter Park Wildcats thrashed, UCF Knights shocked

After West Orange leapt out to a three-touchdown lead, it was just a matter of the clock before Winter Park would fall in their second game of the season. It would end 42-14, with the Wildcats dealt their first loss of the fall.

Quarterback Nick Sproles threw for 103 yards on the night, completing half his passes, though accidentally completing two interceptions as well.

The Wildcats are 1-1 as they prepare to host Freedom at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Patriots are 0-2 on the year after being blown out twice in a row.

Edgewater

The Eagles are 0-2 after letting one of the state’s strongest teams get the best of them in a 46-25 loss to Apopka Sept. 4.

It was an offensive slugfest, mostly courtesy of the Blue Darters (2-0), who rushed for 469 yards in the game. But despite the massive yardage they allowed, the Eagles managed to hold onto the Darters until the fourth quarter, down 30-25, when Apopka finally pulled away with two late touchdowns.

The Eagles host Jones High School at 7 p.m. Friday. The Tigers edged Colonial 24-19 to grab their first win of the season last week.

UCF

The Knights will have to hope they’re not past their bedtime when their first game ever against Stanford kicks off at 10:30 p.m. ET Saturday. They’ll need to be more alert to beat a team that’s much more highly ranked than the FIU squad that upset them 15-14 in UCF’s home opener Sept. 3.

That unlikely loss was also the first upset of the NCAA football season, as the Knights carried a 14-3 lead and let it fall apart in the second half, fizzling out for good on a weak drive that ended in a blocked field goal.

Matthew Wright hadn't kicked a field goal in NCAA history until the moment he was called up with less than 30 seconds left and UCF's football team 1 point behind FIU Thursday night. It did not end well for the Knights.

Three downs of stuffed runs up the middle after the Knights started their final series of what would later be called questionable plays, the Knights left their first game of the 2015 campaign in the hands of a rookie kicker 47 yards from the uprights.

The game up to that moment had been the inverse of the Knights' opener against Penn State the year before, when QB Justin Holman had taken over after a disastrous start that left the Knights well behind, and then led them rapidly to a near-win.

In the final seconds of this season’s opener against FIU, the Knights' characteristically strong defense wrestled the ball back from the Panthers, giving UCF one final chance to win it. Well within field goal range, that chance was squandered by three straight stalled inside gives compounded negatively by a five-yard penalty.

At that point, UCF quarterback Justin Holman had thrown for 249 yards and two touchdowns before he was ordered to hand off the ball in that ill-fated final series.

As Wright's kick left his foot headed for the uprights, the FIU special teams unit had already built a ladder in the middle of the hash marks, deflecting the ball and turning a would-be winning play into a celebration for the Panthers.

"We are on the 25-yard line," Head Coach George O'Leary said after the game. "You just maintain your distance and that kid makes field goals blindfolded from there."

The Knights will need their eyes wide open against a much more dangerous Stanford team Saturday. The Knights opened the season ranked No. 56 of SBNation.com’s annual preseason list of all 128 FBS teams. FIU was ranked No. 105. This Saturday, they face Stanford, ranked No. 16.

The Cardinal are expected to blast the Knights by 16 points — a nearly identical spread the Knights were projected to beat the Panthers by the week before.

But Stanford is also coming off a stunner loss from the week before. In their 16-6 defeat to Northwestern, the Cardinal allowed nearly the same magnitude of reversal of expectations as the Knights. Northwestern, coincidentally, was ranked the next slot behind the Knights of the 128 FBS teams.

During that game, the Cardinal suffered the loss of a key defensive lineman to a season-ending knee injury, and will play three more defensive linemen this week who are nursing wounded knees of their own.

After a disastrous final drive in which the Knights lost battles in the trenches that resulted in a total loss of seven yards on the ground (including a five-yard penalty) while trying to grab better field-goal position, they’ll hope to do better in the run game this week. Will Stanback, expected to be the Knights’ breakout rusher this season, netted six yards on 10 carries last week, as the Knights’ offensive line failed to open up holes for him. Against an injured Stanford defensive line, they could be more successful.

The game kicks off at 10:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, televised on Fox Sports 1.