Vote: Who should be SBLive's North Central Florida football defensive player of the week (10/9/2023)?
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 7.
As such, we have 14 athletes nominated this week for the SBLive’s North Central Florida Defensive Football Player of the Week award from October 5-6 and we ask you, the fans, to help decide who should indeed be the top athlete selected. Voting will conclude on Saturday, October 14th at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be announced in next week's poll.
Here are this week's nominations:
Jacob Cooper, LB, Lake Weir: Cooper played both ways in Lake Weir's 35-0 win over Anclote as the linebacker tallied a team-high nine tackles and two sacks.
Oisin Cullen, LB, Forest: The linebacker had a team-high 10 tackles and one for loss in the Wildcats' 42-6 win over Tavares.
Devin Johnson, DB, P.K. Yonge: The defensive back made a team-high eight tackles in the team's 22-14 loss to West Nassau.
Skyler Forella, LB, Ocala Christian: Forella had himself a game to remember when it came to tackling totals. The linebacker had a team-high 26 tackles, four sacks in the team's 38-6 win over Old Plank Christian.
Devon Andrews, DT, Ocala Christian: The defensive tackle made 21 tackles in the Crusaders victory last week.
Charles Howard, LB, Williston: Howard was the key cog in the Red Devils' defense as they defeated Newberry 24-22. The linebacker made a team-high 12 tackles.
Jonathan Powers, LB, Newberry: Despite being on the losing end of things, Powers made 14 tackles in the loss to Williston.
Jarquez Carter, DL, Newberry: Carter created havoc on the defensive line and tallied a team-high four tackles for loss against Williston.
Malakhi Boone, LB, South Sumter: The two-way Raider star led an opportunistic South Sumter defense with 11 tackles, five for loss and a sack.
Slade Kallschmidt, LB, Taylor County: The Bulldogs' linebacker tallied three sacks in the team's 35-0 victory over Hamilton County.
Amar Thomas, ATH, Dixie County: Thomas was all over the field in the Bears' 19-18 win over Chiefland, notching a team-high 13 tackles.
Connor Bresee, DL, Union County: The defensive lineman had 2.5 sacks in the Fightin' Tigers 57-0 win over Hollis Christian Academy.
Gabe Romero, DL, Trenton: Just an 8th grader, Romero had 12 tackles in Trenton's 7-6 loss to Branford last week.
Demetri Perry, DL, Hawthorne: The defensive lineman had five tackles and three went for a loss in Hawthorne's 49-13 win over Gibbs.
-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl
