The King’s Academy Lions, the Royal Palm Beach High School Wildcats and the Palm Beach Central High School Broncos remain this season’s dominant local football teams. TKA remains undefeated, while Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Central are both 4-1. Wellington High School is inching its way back to .500, while Seminole Ridge High School and Berean Christian School continue to struggle.
The King’s Academy — After a bye week, TKA was scheduled to play at Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach on Thursday, Sept. 26, but the game was postponed to Monday, Sept. 30 due to Hurricane Helene. In that game, TKA prevailed, 17-0. In their five victories, the TKA defense has produced three shutouts. TKA has yielded an average of 7.2 points a game while scoring an average of 27 points.
Head coach Dan Burack was pleased with his squad’s effort against Inlet Grove.
“Our team showed a lot of poise and determination toward winning our first district game,” Burack said. “Not playing for almost 16 days was a tough hurdle to knock some dust off, but the guys picked it up after halftime. Levi Champion had 14 tackles, five of which were tackles for a loss. He’s really a dominant player for our defense.”
The Lions (5-0) will look to continue their winning ways on Friday, Oct. 4, when they host Joshua Christian Academy from Jacksonville for homecoming.
Royal Palm Beach High School — On Friday, Sept. 20, the Wildcats (4-1) earned their fourth win of the season when they defeated then-undefeated Forest Hill High School, 38-16. The Wildcats, who had a bye week Friday, Sept. 27, will be looking for their fifth win of the season on Friday, Oct. 4, when they play the first of four consecutive road games.
On Oct. 4, Royal Palm Beach travels to Boca Raton High School to play the undefeated Bobcats (5-0), and on Thursday, Oct. 10, Royal Palm Beach will play at West Boca Raton High School.
According to head coach Chuck Kenyon, it’s going to take the best effort of the season by his team to defeat Boca Raton. “If we come out as well as we did against Forest Hill, we’ll have a good chance against Boca,” Kenyon said.
Palm Beach Central High School— After a bye week, Palm Beach Central responded with an impressive 26-10 homecoming victory on Friday, Sept. 27 against the then-undefeated Jupiter Warriors (4-1).
That win improved the Broncos’ record to 4-1. It was the third-straight victory for the Broncos. In the win, Palm Beach Central quarterback Chance Routson threw three touchdown passes, one each to Kamare Williams, Preston Parker and Nedrick Boldin.
Head coach Kevin Thompson is proud of the progress and improvement that his team has shown since their 28-7 home loss to West Boca Raton back on Aug. 29.
“Our team’s attitude was wrong, and it was all my fault. We needed to improve team discipline,” Thompson said. “We started everything again from scratch. We took away all varsity privileges from the players and made them earn their spots on the team, their jerseys and access to the locker room. Our team now has a ‘we over me’ attitude.”
Thompson’s new approach is working. In the win against Jupiter, Thompson noted that strong performances were turned in by quarterback Chance Routson, kicker Ethan Dagostino, wide receiver Nedrick Boldin, cornerback Emmanuel Toussaint and cornerback Tiago Mendes.
At halftime of the Jupiter game, Palm Beach Central seniors Sean Lewis and Camila Sarria were crowned as the homecoming king and queen.
On Friday, Oct. 4, Palm Beach Central hosts rival Palm Beach Gardens High School (1-3), and on Thursday, Oct. 10, the Broncos will travel to Palm Beach Lakes High School, which has only won one game.
At the midway point of the season, junior quarterback Chance Routson has completed 75 of 134 passes (56 percent) for 951 yards and 10 touchdowns. He is averaging 155 yards per game. Palm Beach Central’s leading rusher is senior running back Frankie Vomero, who has 59 carries for 448 yards and two touchdowns. He’s averaging 64 yards per game. Palm Beach Central’s leading receiver is senior wide receiver Preston Parker, who has caught 18 passes for 252 yards and five touchdowns. The leading defender is junior middle linebacker Antoine Sharp, who has 63 tackles, two sacks and is averaging 12.5 tackles per game. Palm Beach Central senior kicker/punter Ethan Dagostino is 3-for-5 in field goal attempts, has converted all 18 point-after-touchdown (PAT) attempts and he’s averaging 42 yards per punt with a long punt of 59 yards.
Wellington High School — On Friday, Sept. 27, the Wolverines put together a strong, balanced effort to defeat the Palm Beach Lakes Rams, 31-0. That victory improved their record to 2-3.
According to head coach Ross Pryor, the key to the win against the Rams was the stellar play by Wellington’s offensive line. “Our offensive line was dominant and cleared the way,” he said. “Our run game was great.”
On Friday, Oct. 4, the Wolverines will be looking to even their record at 3-3 when they travel to play undefeated Dr. Joaquín García High School (6-0).
In order for Wellington to defeat Garcia, Pryor said his team needs to control the line of scrimmage, establish a superior running game and eliminate careless penalties.
“We are going to need to ‘pound the rock’ and stay poised in the penalty battle,” he said. “On defense, we must stop the run and prevent the pass.”
Seminole Ridge High School — The Hawks (0-6) remain in pursuit of their first victory of the season. Despite going winless, the team remains upbeat and confident that their fortunes will change soon.
“We got hit with a lot of injuries early in the season, which put our defense in a tough spot,” head coach Chad Chieffalo said. “And, despite that, we have been in a position to win every game so far. We are going to prepare like we have every week. Maybe with a little more focus on fundamentals — things like blocking, tackling, block destruction, eliminating penalties and ball security. We have to do better this week with attention to detail if we’re going to see the win column.”
In their two most recent games, Seminole Ridge fell 49-21 to Santaluces High School on Friday, Sept. 20. On Friday, Sept. 27, the Hawks lost 42-33 to Palm Beach Gardens.
The Hawks will be seeking their first win of the season when they visit the Benjamin School (2-3) on Friday, Oct. 4. On Friday, Oct. 11, the Hawks have a bye week.
Berean Christian School — After opening the regular season with three losses, the Bulldogs have split their last four games. The two wins were a 14-7 victory against Central Florida Christian Academy on Friday, Sept. 6 and a 20-8 victory against Marco Island Academy on Thursday, Sept. 19. The two losses were both against Miami Country Day School, a 41-6 loss on Friday, Sept. 13 and a 44-0 loss on Friday, Sept. 27. The next game for Berean (2-5) will be Thursday, Oct. 10 in Boca Raton against Saint John Paul II Academy.
