By John Peery
For all his success on the gridiron, Apopka High football coach Rick Darlington has never experienced an undefeated season as a head coach.
He’s had six 9-1 seasons and won three state championships as coach of the Blue Darters, but has never gone into the final regular-season game with the chance to finish the season unbeaten – until now.
When the 8-0 Blue Darters host the 2-5 Evans Trojans Thursday, October 27, at Roger Williams Field, Apopka will be heavily favored to finish the regular season 9-0 with a week off before the playoffs begin on November 11. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 and will be available at the gate.
It would be the first unbeaten regular season for the Blue Darters since 1994 when coach Chip Gierke led Apopka to a 10-0 mark during the regular season.
The Darters originally had 10 games scheduled, but Hurricane Matthew caused Apopka’s homecoming game against Olympia to be postponed. When Olympia refused to reschedule the contest, it left Apopka with just nine games.
“Never had that (undefeated season) happen before,” Darlington said. “It would be good but 10-0 sounds a little bit better if Olympia hadn’t cowarded out on us.”
However, as nice as it would be to finish 9-0, Darlington has long stressed that it’s the postseason that counts as he treats regular-season games as positioning for the playoffs.
As an example, he referred to Apopka’s 2014 season in which the Blue Darters struggled throughout the regular season at 6-4, even losing three games in October before blasting through the playoffs to the Class 8A state championship.
“I’d much rather go 6-4 and win them all in the playoffs than go whatever and 0 in the regular season and then bow out early (in the playoffs). The playoffs are really what matter.”
While Evans is a District 8A-4 opponent, the Blue Darters are unbeaten in district play and have already clinched the district crown. The Trojans, meanwhile, are 0-2 in district action and have been eliminated from the possibility of a postseason berth.
Wekiva and West Orange will also play Thursday, October 27, and the winner of that game will be the 8A-4 runner-up to Apopka, which has defeated both of those teams.
In the first round of the playoffs, Apopka will host Timber Creek, while the Wekiva-West Orange winner will travel to Winter Park. Those games will be played November 11.
Evans started out the season with a pair of wins, defeating Coral Springs Taravella and Orlando University. Since, however, the Trojans have lost five straight to Oak Ridge, Jones, Olympia, Wekiva, and West Orange. A game against Cypress Creek was wiped out by Hurricane Matthew and wasn’t rescheduled.
Offensively, the Trojans run the spread offense and will employ no-back and one-back formations with all the formations being pass heavy. Kimani Binder was the quarterback last year for Evans when the Blue Darters defeated the Trojans 49-14 and he returns this year to lead his team.
Evans runs a four-man front and will sneak a linebacker up to the line, as well. Against Apopka’s run-oriented offense, the Trojans may crowd the box even more to try to slow down the Blue Darters.
Even though the Blue Darters will be huge favorites to soundly defeat the Trojans, Darlington said he expects to get the Evans’ best shot.
“Usually they’re very similar to Oak Ridge,” he said of the Trojans. “When you watch them warm up, you say, ‘Oh, my word, they’ve got some players.’ I think they’ll play hard. The key to those people always is to jump up on them (early).”
Jumping on Evans early is expected to lead to another Apopka victory, giving Darlington that first undefeated regular season in his head coaching career.
