It was a win; that's the good news.

However, it wasn't exactly a pretty one and the head coach said there is a lot of room for improvement, but the bottom line is that the Apopka Blue Darters defeated the West Orange Warriors, 32-20, Friday, September 17, at Ray Screws Memorial Field.

The biggest part of the bottom line is that the victory was a District 6A-3 triumph, giving Apopka a 1-0 record in district action.

And, because the first two scheduled games were either postponed or cancelled because of Hurricane Frances, the victory was the season opener for the Blue Darters while the Warriors dropped to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in district play.
"It was the first game against a good district opponent," said Apopka head coach Ty Ensor. "We didn't play very well, but we got the win."

Ensor said he saw plenty of good things, but that it was the consistency of those good things, or lack of them, that concerned him. "We had a lull. We can't afford to do that," he said. "We have to stay focused the whole game. I don't think we did that bad, but it was in spurts."

Most of the spurting for Apopka came early as the Darters dominated the first quarter, building a 10-0 lead.
Apopka got on the board first when Tamaki Jackson scampered for a 13-yard touchdown on Apopka's first possession midway through the first quarter. It capped a 55-yard drive, which followed a three-and-out forced by the Apopka defense on West Orange's opening possession.

The Darters got another score when Robert Beary nailed a 34-yard field goal with 1:16 remaining in the first quarter.

Defensively, the Darters uncharacteristically gave up 227 yards rushing, almost all of it after the first quarter. "We missed a lot of tackles," Ensor said. At practice on Monday, September 20, the defense was working on tackling drills.
Offensively, Apopka rushed for just 147 yards, more than half of it -- 84 yards -- in the first quarter.

With those impressive first-quarter numbers, Apopka looked on its way to an easy victory, but that's when the lull and lack of focus that Ensor talked about began. And it continued through the second period as West Orange took a 14-10 lead at halftime.

But, the Blue Darters got back into the swing of things enough to pull off two big plays in the third period.
Apopka touched the ball only three times in the third quarter, but scored two touchdowns to take control of the contest.
With West Orange leading 14-10, Apopka's Eric Sledge bobbled the second half kickoff, but quickly scooped up the ball, scooted to his left and outran the Warrior defenders for a 95-yard return for a touchdown to give Apopka a 17-14 lead it would not relinquish. That was the first TD touch for Apopka in the third period.

But, West Orange was not ready to give in as the Warriors drove to a first down at the Apopka 5 before Melvin Black popped the ball out of the hands of West Orange running back Marcus White. The ball bounced back and Corey Pettigrew fell on it at the 18 yard line.

On the first play after the fumble recovery, the Darters went for it all and it paid off as quarterback Jonathon Maxwell hit a wide open Edward Sands for an 82-yard touchdown pass. Maxwell passed to kicker Robert Beary for the two-point conversion to give Apopka a 25-14 lead with 7:37 left in the third period. That was Apopka's second TD touch of the third quarter.

After West Orange scored very late in the third period to pull within 25-20, the Darters ran one play before the period ended. It was only Apopka's second offensive play of the third quarter and just the third time the Darters had touched the ball. And, while Apopka didn't score on the play, it still was a 19-yard pickup by Maxwell.

Apopka had a early fourth quarter touchdown called back and later missed a long field goal try, but the Darters put the cap on the game with a 28-yard touchdown run by Ivory Lewis with 2:37 left in the contest.
The score came a fourth-and-4 stop by the Apopka defense on the West Orange 39.