High School Football Preview: Gainesville Faces Ocala Forest

The Gainesville High School Purple Hurricanes will look to continue their turnaround against the Ocala Forest Wildcats this Friday night at Citizen’s Field in Gainesville.

The Hurricanes are 2-2 and 1-0 in the district. They started the season 0-2 and have fought their way back to 2-2. The one district win came from beating Lake Weir 45-0 on September 16th. Gainesville High School coach Mark Latsko discussed the importance of this game and being 2-0 in the district.

Like the Hurricanes, the Forest Wildcats are 1-0 in the district after beating Leesburg, 51-6, on September 16th. However, unlike the Hurricanes, they are undefeated at 4-0. Latsko spoke highly of Ocala Forest saying they don’t have many holes and don’t beat themselves.

Gainesville is coming off of a 22-21 win over North Marion last week. Latsko was pleased many things he saw in last week’s game, including the fact they played an entire four quarters of football.

There were things Latsko did not like in the win against North Marion and they will look to improve those things in order to upset the Wildcats.

They’ll also see if quarterback Luke Matthews will return from sustaining a concussion. Latsko says they’ll hope for him to play and lean towards the side of caution when handling his return. If Matthews is not ready to play, Latsko says they feel comfortable going with quarterback Dustin Johnson and will make adjustments.

With the Gainesville’s the quarterback situation, the offense will relying on their improved offensive line and running game; Latsko says they try to get better every single week.

Latsko knows he has a young team; he plays a lot of freshmen and sophomores but he is pleased with the progress the team is making.  The winner of this game will take a huge step at possibly winning the district and qualifying for the playoffs.