Vote: Who should be SBLive's North Central Florida football defensive player of the week (10/4/2023)?
High school football is back in the Sunshine State and so begins our Player of the Week polls for areas all around the state. Teams started off the regular season with some great individual performances in Week 6.
As such, we have nine athletes nominated this week for the SBLive’s North Central Florida high school football defensive player of the week award from September 28-29 and we ask you, the fans, to help decide who should indeed be the top athlete selected. Voting will conclude on Saturday, October 7th at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be announced in next week's poll.
Congratulations to last week’s winner, Wyatt Hester, LB, Newberry.
Here are this week's nominations.
Lawrence Rivers, LB, Chiefland: Rivers led the defensive charge against Trenton in a 40-20 win, making 16 tackles and 3.5 went for a loss.
Jon Furst, DL, Trenton: The defensive lineman had seven tackles and six went for a loss in Trenton’s 40-20 loss to Chiefland.
Cole Rarey, LB, Bell: Rarey made a team-high 11 tackles and two went for a loss in a 29-6 victory over Seven Rivers Christian.
Jonathan Harding, DE, The Villages: Harding had a strong outing despite the Buffaloes’ 42-14 loss to Eustis, with the defensive end had a team-high nine tackles.
DJ McCoy, DB, Taylor County: McCoy was the leading tackler for the Bulldogs after notching a team-high 19 tackles in a 33-9 loss to Suwannee.
Au’vontae Smith, DE, Columbia: The defensive end led the Fightin’ Tigers with two sacks in Columbia’s 36-0 win over Orange Park.
Eli Nelson, DE, Dunnellon: Nelson was apart of the strong defensive effort in the Tigers’ 37-0 win over Hernando. The edge rusher made six tackles and two for a loss.
Hunter Crevasse, LB, Santa Fe: Crevasse led the way for the Raiders in a 28-27 loss to P.K. Yonge as the linebacker totaled a team-high 10 tackles.
Jake Mandahl, DB, South Sumter: The defensive back made 10 tackles and three went for a loss in the Raiders’ 56-0 victory over Crystal River.
-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl
