During Thursday Night HS Football Action, Timber Creek Knocked Off Winter Park

Great high school football game between Timber Creek and Winter Park came down to the wire.

Author:
Stephen Leonard
Publish date:
Oct 29, 2021 2:14 PM EDT

ORLANDO - Who said high school football should be played on Fridays? Not Timber Creek High School, as they hosted Winter Park High School in a contest that had serious playoff implications. Both teams entered the game with records of 6-2, and sat tied atop the 8A District 4 standings. A win for either team guaranteed a district championship.

The game got underway with a booming kick by Timber Creek Kicker Alex Davis, only being returned to the Winter Park 15 yard line. After that the game was cagey with defense playing a huge factor, playing stingy defense inside the redzone and forcing multiple three and outs.

The key defensive player for Winter Park was junior Will Watson, the defensive back recorded four deflected passes, including one in the endzone denying a Timber Creek touchdown. Watson moved all over the field, roaming from safety into the slot, playing in a very similar role to UCF safety Divaad Wilson.

After Timber Creek’s initial success passing the ball to Senior wide receiver Ryan Campbell, who’s efforts put his team in field goal range to score the first points of the game from an Alex Davis field goal, Watson moved into more man coverage assignments.

He shadowed Campbell who only managed two catches in one on one matchups with Watson, with the defensive back allowing two screen pass completions for short yardage on the six targets.

Highly recruited Winter Park senior defensive lineman Venson Sneed was kept relatively in check by the Timber Creek offensive line only managing one sack. The Tennessee Volunteer commitment just could not get to the quarterback with frustration being a clear factor.

Venson Sneed, Defensive End, Orlando (Fla.) Winter Park — Tennessee Commitment and Winter Park (Fla.) High School Defensive End Venson Sneed
Brian Smith, Inside The Knights

When he finally managed to get the quarterback to the turf, a flag was thrown for unnecessary roughness before being waived off by another referee. Sneed clearly has talent, but came up against a quarterback that would just not go down with slight contact.

The Timber Creek defensive unit was very stingy all night, only allowing two big plays by the Winter Park offense. Those big plays were huge runs, including one 70-yard run by senior Jamari Shaw that set up the Winter Park touchdown on a quarterback sneak. The Winter Park offense was led by a dynamic duo at the running back position with Jamari Shaw’s partner being Junior Amaris Shaw.

Timber Creek’s senior quarterback Tanner Stevens did an effective job leading drives, throwing quick passes to his receivers and putting balls in spots that his receivers could make a play. Unfortunately a pass that both his receiver and the Winter Park defender could get went the wrong way, giving the Winter Park defense an interception with just over six minutes remaining in the game and holding the one point lead.

Winter Park drove down the field, seemingly about to score as they had the football down inside the ten yard line. However, two big run stuffs by the Timber Creek defense forced a third down. Then, Winter Park decided to pass the ball twice, which resulted in two incomplete passes and just over one-and-a-half minutes remaining for Timber Creek to win the game.

That’s when Stevens and senior wide receiver Ethan Varnedore connected for a first down. That connection setup Timber Creek on the 27 yard line with four seconds remaining. After an attempt to ice the kicker, Davis stepped up and nailed a 43-yard kick to seal the 9-7 victory for Timber Creek. The kicker from the Class of 2023 has been on a visit to UCF, which is only 20 minutes from the Timber Creek campus.

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