Friday Night Lights: Ocoee travel to Apopka to open 2024 high school football season

Horizon football hosts Olympia, Foundation welcomes Lakeland Christian while West Orange heads to Evans for Week 1 and plenty more.

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High school football is officially back in West Orange and Southwest Orange, and the season starts off with a few must-watch games, starting off with the headline matchup, the Ocoee Knights heading to their next-door neighbors Apopka High.

Game of the week: Ocoee High (0-0) at Apopka High (0-0)

Our Game of the Week, featuring the Knights traveling to their Orange County neighbors, the Blue Darters, is a classic bordering towns district rivalry game.

Last season, the Knights gave the Blue Darters all they could handle in a dream game for fans of good defense. Apopka eked out a win over Ocoee by the lowest possible score, 2-0.

In other action, Horizon High hosts Olympia High in the only game this week between two area teams. 

The rush-heavy Hawks offense will look to take advantage of the young Titans defense that replaced all of its starters. Both Olympia and Horizon hope Week One will be a bounce-back one after difficult preseason outings last week.

Here's the full schedule of games for the week. 

Week One

All games kick off at 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, AUG. 22

The First Academy (0-0) at Lipscomb Academy (Tennessee, 8 p.m. start)

FRIDAY, AUG. 23

West Orange (0-0) at Evans (0-0)

Horizon (0-0) vs. Olympia (0-0)

Dr. Phillips (0-0) vs. Lake Nona (0-0)

Lake Buena Vista (0-0) vs. Cypress Creek (0-0)

Windermere (0-0) at Harmony (0-0)

SSAC

CFCA (0-0) at Trinity Prep (0-1)

Foundation Academy (0-1) vs. Lakeland Christian (0-0)

Legacy Charter (0-1) vs. Jordan Christian (0-0)

Windermere Prep (0-0) vs. Young Kids in Motion (0-0) (6 p.m. start)

 

author

Sam Albuquerque

A native of João Pessoa, Brazil, Sam Albuquerque moved in 1997 to Central Florida as a kid. After earning a communications degree in 2016 from the University of Central Florida, he started his career covering sports as a producer for a local radio station, ESPN 580 Orlando. He went on to earn a master’s degree in editorial journalism from Northwestern University, before moving to South Carolina to cover local sports for the USA Today Network’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal. When he’s not working, you can find him spending time with his lovely wife, Sarah, newborn son, Noah, and dog named Skulí.