UCF celebrates 'First Frost' with a stomping of South Carolina State

The UCF Knights snapped a 639-day losing streak over the weekend, pummeling South Carolina State 38-0 during the team’s season kickoff in the Bright House.

Scott Frost got his first win as the Knights’ head coach, and the team got their first win since going 0-12 last year. The Sept. 3 game, branded as the “First Frost,” saw the Knights run 91 plays, which is more than they’d run against any opponent since 2002, beating up on a Bulldog team that went 7-4 in 2015.

Frost said the win got the “monkey off their backs,” as the team broke the losing streak that had plagued them since 2014.

“They got here because they worked their tails off, they worked their butts off, and they’re a different team than they were a year ago,” Frost said in a postgame interview.

Justin Holman returned to lead the team as quarterback, after sitting out most of last season due to injury. He struggled in the first half, going 6-for-17 amassing only 28 yards. Before Holman took the field, Coach Frost said of the jittery quarterback, “It looked like he drank 11 Red Bulls.”

But Holman said he calmed down once he scored the game’s first touchdown, which he ran 10 yards into the end zone with 1:45 left in the first half. “It was like slow motion,” he said. Before that, kicker Matthew Wright had been responsible for all the Knights points on the board, going 4-for-4 in field goals in the first half to leave the score at 18-0.

The Knights would rally in the second half, laying on 30 more points before game’s end. Holman picked up the pace, going 8-for-11 with 165 yards in the last two quarters.

The game would be the first for identical twin brothers Shaquill and Shaquem Griffin to take the field together as Knights. Senior cornerback Shaquill started for the Knights last season, but outside linebacker Shaquem got his first field time in the game on Saturday.

“Since I’ve been here I’ve just been looking forward to playing side by side with him,” Shaquill said. “…That’s the best feeling in the world.”

Shaquill would end the game with an interception and a pass break-up. Shaquem made his debut tying for the team-high six tackles in the game, along with a sack and forced fumble.

The Knights will face an unknown foe this weekend, heading to Ann Arbor, Mich. to face the Wolverines for the first time in program history. Michigan is coming off a 63-3 win over Hawaii last week, and a 10-3 record last season.

The game will kick off at noon in Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 10, and will be broadcast on ABC.

Winter Park football

The Winter Park Wildcats bounced back from their one-point first week upset loss at Lake Nona to obliterate West Orange in week two.

The Wildcats took an early 21-7 lead in the first quarter of the game, already enough for the win, then tacked on another 29 points over three quarters to make it 50-14 on West Orange’s home field.

Part of the reason for that rout was Winter Park’s defense getting the ball back over and over again. The Wildcats would snag three interceptions in the game, and scooped up four fumbles to run them back for 50 yards. Cullen Honohan had the highlight play of the night on defense, snagging an interception near Winter Park’s end zone and racing 90 yards for the TD.

By the second quarter the rout was already on, with Cameron Legree leading the Wildcats at quarterback and throwing for 125 yards on the night. Most of the damage came from the Wildcats’ run game, with Jordan Pouncey carrying the ball six times for 158 yards, ramming in three of the Wildcats’ touchdowns himself. Legree stayed mobile too, using his feet to add 78 yards to the Wildcats’ nearly 400 yards of total offense.

Coming up Friday, the Wildcats (1-1) travel for their third straight week, landing at Freedom (0-1), which is coming off a bye week after losing 34-27 to Winter Springs in the season opener. That game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Freedom High School.

Edgewater football

A listless Eagles team dropped their second straight, this time in the biggest large school blowout so far this season in Central Florida.

Coming off the 42-6 loss to Bishop Moore in their first week, the Eagles weren’t looking forward to facing a football powerhouse in Apopka, though the Eagles would get to play at home. The home field advantage didn’t work, as they let the Blue Darters light up the scoreboard in a 78-0 rout.

The Eagles will host Jones (2-0) Friday night, with the Fighting Tigers fresh of a 34-0 smashing of Colonial last Friday. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. at Edgewater.