Lake Wales swamps Auburndale to win Florida high school district football title

Carlos Mitchell follows a touchdown catch with the pick-six to spark the Highlanders to nab 3S District 8 championship

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – They even brought t-shirts with them.

Lake Wales avenged a heart-breaking district-title game loss from a year ago by routing Auburndale, 41-0, on Friday to seize the 3S District 8 championship at Bruce Canova Stadium.

The Highlanders – ranked No. 23 in the SBLive Sports’ Florida Football Power 25 rankings – cracked open a couple of boxes of pre-made district championship t-shirts and doused head coach Tavaris Johnson during the post-game celebration.

Carlos Mitchell and Diyante Landrum celebrate Landrum’s 43-yard touchdown catch in the final seconds of the 3S District 8 championship game at Auburndale on Friday at Bruce Canova Stadium / Photo by Bill Kemp

“Our slogan was ‘Yes, I believe,’ but the players said, ‘We are going to be district champs’ and wanted to go ahead and print shirts,” Lake Wales head coach Tavaris Johnson said. “I said, ‘Well then I believe we are going to be district champs and I’ll go ahead and spend $1,000 on them.”

With the win, Lake Wales (9-0) received an automatic berth into the FHSAA 3S quarterfinals beginning Nov. 11, and would be five postseason wins away from delivering the program its first state championship.

“If t-shirts would get us five wins, I’ll print those, too,” Johnson said. “I am proud of everyone. I am proud of the Highlander nation right now.”

A Lake Wales player wears a Highlanders’ 3S District 8 championship t-shirt that was unpacked following the District 8 championship game win at Auburndale on Friday at Bruce Canova Stadium / Photo by Bill Kemp

After a scoreless first quarter, Lake Wales utilized a fake punt to set up shop deep in Auburndale territory, where Xavier Marlow capitalized, scoring on an 8-yard run with 4:35 left in the half for a 6-0 lead.

“Obviously, Auburndale did a good job. They played a good first quarter against us and showed us something different,” Johnson said. “We made a few adjustments, and I’ll tell you what, the rest was history.”

The next three minutes belonged to Carlos Mitchell. The Lake Wales junior hauled in a 50-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Trent Grotjan to push the Highlanders lead to 13-0. Then with 47 seconds remaining in the half, Mitchell picked off an Amari Turner pass at the 10-yard line, looped around, and returned it 90 yards for the score.

Lake Wales quarterback Trent Grotjan looks for running room during the 3S District 8 championship game at Auburndale on Friday at Bruce Canova Stadium / Photo by Bill Kemp

“It was just all in the moment,” said Mitchell, who had muffed a punt earlier in the game and was bound-and-determined to make up for it. “I knew I had to get it back, I couldn’t let my team down. They told me to keep my head up and I was just determined.”

It gave Lake Wales a 20-0 halftime lead.

“Carlos is explosive. Carlos has got the X-factor,” Johnson said. “Trent played a great game tonight. He led us well and kept his composure and stayed in charge of the offense.”

The Highlanders pulled away in the second half, getting a 1-yard touchdown run from Johnquae Richardson and a 27-yard touchdown catch from Jaremiah Anglin in the third quarter. Lake Wales capped the win by getting a 43-yard touchdown pass from Grotjan to Diyante Landrum with 45 seconds left in the game.

Auburndale linebacker Chandler Locklear pounces on a Lake Wales fumble in the first quarter of the 3S District 8 championship game at Auburndale on Friday at Bruce Canova Stadium / Photo by Bill Kemp

Auburndale (5-3) is still very much in the playoff hunt. The Bloodhounds will host arch-rival Winter Haven Friday in the regular season finale.

“We have to finish drives. We had a few miscues,” Auburndale head coach Kyle Sasser said. “We had it going early but we had a turnover and a missed field goal. That’s 10 points right there. But they ran that fake punt and that kind of deflated our guys. That is where it turned and our age showed a little bit.”