Vote: Who should be SBLive's North Central Florida football defensive player of the week (10/24/2023)?

We’ve selected 10 candidates to choose from this past week’s games

High school football is back in the Sunshine State and so begins our Player of the Week polls for areas all around the state. Teams started off the regular season with some great individual performances in Week 9.

As such, we have 10 athletes nominated this week for the SBLive’s North Central Florida Defensive Football Player of the Week award from October 19-20, and we ask you, the fans, to help decide who should indeed be the top athlete selected. Voting will conclude on Saturday, October 28th at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be announced in next week's poll. 

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Congratulations to last week’s winner: Markus Lewis, DT, P.K. Yonge 

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Here are the nominations: 

Andrew Zock, DL, Hawthorne: Zock tallied 11 tackles and two went for a loss in the Hornets' 54-8 win over North Marion, his former team. 

Jacob Dyer, LB, Trinity Catholic: The linebacker made a team-high 12 tackles in the Celtics' 21-8 loss to St. Xavier of Ohio. 

Maleek Williams, DB, The Villages: We have Williams on both our North Central lists because he made an impact on both sides of the ball. Williams intercepted two passes in the team's 17-16 win over Wildwood. 

Anthony Johnson, DE, West Port: The defensive end had three sacks in the Wolfpack’s 35-14 win against East Ridge. 

Skyler Forella, DE, Ocala Christian: Forella notched a team-high nine tackles and three sacks in the Crusaders’ 22-6 win over Countryside Christian. 

Timothy Taylor Jr., DT, Williston: The defensive tackle was in Hudson’s backfield a lot on Friday night, tallying three sacks in the 49-18 win. 

Corinthian Graham, DB, P.K. Yonge: Graham, a cornerback for the Blue Wave, made eight tackles in the 35-0 loss to Newberry. 

Logan McCloud, DE, Newberry: The edge rusher had a nice evening versus the Blue Wave, making five tackles and two sacks. 

Octavius Hodge, LB, Madison County: The middle linebacker tallied a team-high 14 tackles in the Cowboys’ 29-16 win over Oakleaf. 

Darius Cook, LB, Dixie County: Cook made a team-high 17 tackles in the Bears’ 41-7 win over Hamilton County. 

-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl