football Archive

Coming off a 35-7 loss to South Walton last week, things might not get any easier for the Baker football team on Friday. The Gators travel to the south end of Okaloosa County to take on the Destin Sharks in a 7 p.m. game.

There will be a bit of the unknown on Friday night when the Crestview football team hosts Gulf Breeze in a 7 p.m. game at Jack Foster Stadium. The game is the Hall of Fame game where the Class of 2023 for Crestview Bulldogs Sports Hall of Fame will be recognized at half time.

To the untrained eye, there wasn’t anything pretty about Baker’s season opening football game at Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium on Friday. The Gators hosted a talented South Walton team that not only had more players, but more athletes as well. Unfinished Baker drives on offense coupled with big plays from the Seahawk offense was the story of the game in a nutshell as South Walton took a 35-7.

The season opener football game for Crestview High School was filled with promise early on. The Bulldogs were up 15-0 at the half on a visiting Rickards squad from Tallahassee. But, as everyone knows, football is a sport that is played for four quarters. The Raiders scored all 24 points of their points in the second half. Rickards’ final score, a touchdown pass from Benjamin Henry to tight end Jalen Wiggins, came with four seconds left in the game giving. The touchdown gave the visitors the 24-23 win.

Barry Gardner enters his second season as the Baker head football coach facing the same expectations the fans that pack Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium have every year, a run for a state title.

The Gators might play in the smallest classification in the state. And, with just 22 players on the varsity roster, Baker has one of the smaller squads in the state, but that doesn’t change the emphasis of winning at Baker.

There were no changes to District 2-4S, which is what Crestview will compete in this fall in football.

The Bulldogs will again be joined again by Tallahassee schools Chiles and Leon as well as Mosely and Niceville.

Dress rehearsals are complete. There are no more Kickoff Classics or scrimmage on the schedule.

The Crestview Bulldogs open the 2023 season in the friendly confines of Jack Foster Stadium on Thursday when they host Rickards. The Bulldogs hope the season concludes in early December with a 4S state championship.

The rubber meets the road on Friday when the Baker football team welcomes South Walton to Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium in the 2023 season opener. The Gators look to avenge a 38-0 loss to the Seahawks to open the 2022 season.

The wait is almost over for the official start of the high school football season. The first game of the 2023 season on tap in Okaloosa County takes place Thursday night when Crestview welcomes a talented Rickards squad from Tallahassee to Jack Foster Stadium.

The next time the Baker football team takes the field will be at Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium on Aug. 25 for the season opener as the Gators host South Walton. If Friday’s Kickoff Classic against a talented Northview team is any indication of how Baker will do against the high-flying Seahawks there is reason for optimism for Gator fans.