WESLEY CHAPEL — The Wiregrass Ranch football team that coach Mark Kantor thought he had in the preseason has finally arrived just in time for the playoffs.
The Bulls, who were under .500 almost all season, closed the season with a 4-0 flourish, capturing the district title and a home playoff game Friday against top-ranked Sebring.
Sound familiar? It should.
Last year, the Bulls started 0-4 before a late season run ended with a district championship and a spot in the playoffs.
“We’re playing great football right now,” Kantor said. “Hopefully we can continue the run because now it comes down to one and done. You don’t get another week unless you win.”
The Bulls lost this year to a team with a 6-4 record, a team with a 7-2 record and two teams with 8-2 records. Sometimes, they didn’t look great doing it.
They had a chance to beat South Sumter, but a last-second field goal foiled that effort. They played poorly in a loss to Berkeley Prep. After a win over rival Wesley Chapel, the “offense wasn’t vibing,” Kantor said, in a 19-0 loss to Plant City.
In keeping with their roller coaster start, the Bulls trounced Sunlake and then turned around the next week and got walloped 57-30 by East Ridge, the most points they had allowed since a playoff loss to Lakeland in 2019.
But they took control of the district with a huge win over Land O’ Lakes Oct. 24 and then closed with a 45-13 win over perennial county power Zephyrhills, a victory punctuated by a 28-point fourth quarter.
Senior Destin Mathew had a 73-yard interception in the quarter, and sophomore Caleb James added another of 67 yards.
Offensively, the Bulls performance was typical: junior quarterback Ryan Browning threw for three touchdowns, senior wideout Jonah Gonzaelez went over 1,000 yards for the season with 126 yards and two touchdowns and junior running back Isaiah Orr rushed for 73 yards.
“I think the biggest game was how we played against Zephyrhills,” Kantor said. “I just thought at that moment we looked like the team that I thought we would look like when we saw it on paper.”
If the Florida High School Athletic Association’s painfully slow process of revealing the playoff pairings, as well as the one-week bye after the regular season concluded, hasn’t stemmed the Bulls’ flow, Kantor thinks his team can make some noise in the playoffs.
The team has gelled, a process that has taken a few months each of the last two seasons due to several new pieces.
It averaged 36.5 points a game down the stretch and allowed just 14.2. Its seniors will be making their fourth straight postseason appearance.
Last year, they lost a heartbreaking 42-41 decision in the first round, and the year before they advanced to the Elite 8 before falling to West Boca Raton.
Is this the year the Bulls take that next step?
“Well, we’re going to try,” Kantor said. “I hope they do. It comes down to really the players wanting to do it, and I’ve always said that I don’t have anything to do ‘til Christmas, and I would love to be able to have a great run with these guys. It would be a testament to where we started and how we ended. That would be a great end to the story.”