Marty Pallman joined Jeff Cardozo & Pat Dooley on The Tailgate (WRUF-98.1 FM & 850 AM) on Thursday, October 1, for ThePrepZone.com Sports Report presented by SunState Federal Credit Union. Here is a recap of the interview:
Football
Eastside hosts Clay tonight – Struggles continue for the Eastside Rams in their first year under coach Alex DeLeon. In a city rivalry game last Friday the Rams were overwhelmed by Buchholz 54-0 as the Bobcats picked up their first win of the 2020 season. Tonight 0-3 Eastside is back at Citizens Field looking for their first win of the season against the 2-0 Clay Blue Devils. Clay had their game against Palatka canceled last week due to COVID issues but will return to the field tonight against the Rams. The Blue Devils only won one game a year ago but are off to a much better start led by running back Al’querious Ray, who averaged 180 yards a game in Clay’s first two games this season. Eastside won last year’s meeting 42-20 for one of their two wins on the season. Tonight’s game can be seen on The Prep Zone and the Eastside Athletics Facebook Page beginning at 6:45 with kickoff set for 7. There are two other games in the area tonight as Newberry travels to Williston. Newberry has won three in a row after an opening week loss at Hawthorne, while Williston is 2-2 after slipping past Hamilton County 28-26 a week ago. And Saint Francis Catholic, still looking for their first win, hosts undefeated Ocoee Legacy Charter.
More Football
COVID-19 issues have hit the Gainesville High football team. The Hurricanes, who dropped to 1-2 after a 38-7 loss to Trinity Catholic at home last Thursday, had to cancel their game at Columbia this Friday as the entire team was forced to quarantine due to COVID. Next week’s game against rival Buchholz is still on for now but up in the air. Buchholz evened their record at 1-1 with the win over Eastside last week, and travels to Live Oak Friday for a tough road matchup with Suwannee. This is a renewal of a rivalry that was pretty heated in the 90’s. Suwannee is 3-1 this year with wins over Santa Fe and Bradford and their only loss coming to Madison County. Hawthorne is back in action after missing the last two weeks due to COVID issues, and the Hornets host another rival in P.K. Yonge. Hawthorne is 2-0 and last played on September 11. The Blue Wave evened their record at 2-2 last week with a 20-13 road win in Alachua against Santa Fe. The loss to P.K. Yonge dropped Santa Fe to 1-3, and the Raiders have a bye this week. Finally Oak Hall, playing eight-man football this season, improved to 4-0 last night with a 64-6 romp over Kissimmee City of Life Christian Academy.
Volleyball
The schedules have picked up for many of the local volleyball teams. Santa Fe dropped three games to Creekside, Ponte Vedra, and Tallahassee FSU High last weekend in a tournament in Jacksonville. The Raiders are now 12-6 and are heading to another top tournament, the Nike Tournament of Champions in Tampa where they will play Tarpon Springs East Lake and Clearwater Central Catholic on Friday. But first Santa Fe heads to the Purple Palace tonight to play Gainesville. The Hurricanes are 10-4 after beating The Rock last night and Bradford on Tuesday, and GHS went 2-2 in the Jacksonville tournament last weekend. It’s been a tough stretch for Buchholz, as their record is now 3-8 after dropping four matches in the Berkeley Prep tourney two weeks ago, but the Bobcats did beat GHS at home last Thursday and travels to Oak Hall tonight. Newberry continues to impress, as they travelled to Jacksonville last weekend and beat Bolles and seven-time defending 1A state champion Sneads while going 4-1 in the tournament there. The Panthers easily swept Seven Rivers Christian at home on Tuesday to improve to 12-3, and host St. John Lutheran tonight.
**Tune in to our weekly radio interviews talking high school sports on ThePrepZone.com Sports Report presented by SunState Federal Credit Union on WRUF-98.1 FM & 850 AM in Gainesville every Thursday at 4 p.m. on “The Tailgate” with Jeff Cardozo & Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley.**
Find out what’s going on daily in high school sports with ThePrepZone.com Sports Report Presented by SunState Federal Credit Union. The 1-minute high school sports vignette is produced by Mike Ridaught and airs ‘live’ every weekday morning between 7:50-7:55 a.m. on “106.9 (FM) I am Country” in Gainesville. The reports are archived for 30 days here.
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