• Sept. 23, Winter Park (Home): Evans has the more talented roster, and will be home, (2-3).
• Sept. 30, Lake Brantley (Home): Lake Brantley is a well-coached squad, with an offense that scares me. By this point in the season, our defense will be firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, I can reasonably see this being a hard-fought victory for the visiting Patriots, (2-4).
• October 6, Oak Ridge (Away): With all due respect, no matter how bad things get — Trojans don’t lose to Choke Ridge. Our first road win would be an important morale boost at this juncture, and put us good position to end the season, (3-4).
• October 14, Lake Mary (Home): Along with execution on both sides of the ball, I’m hopeful that our home field advantage will be just enough to elevate us to four wins on the season, after a very close game, (4-4).
• October 27, Apopka (Away): Since the days of the legendary Gierke Bros., Apopka and Evans have had an interesting relationship. Contests between the two school has become an important measuring for the condition of both programs. In recent years, Apopka has displaced the Trojans without much issues, but this year will be different. And while the Blue Darters will likely squeak out the win at home, if Coach Lang is making progress in rebuilding Evans to a regional power, we’ll see encouraging glimpses of it in this late-season match-up, (4-5).
• November 4, Lake Nona (Away): Reiterating everything I just mentioned from the Apopka game, a confident Trojans performance should put this game out of reach for the Lions at home. Ending our 2022-23 campaign with a win, and (5-5) record.

Conclusion

By the end of the season, I can project a two-win improvement from last season, with a respectable showing our new home, a brutal 4M-District, that includes several area programs with playoffs expectations. Each week in our new FHSAA classification will be a trial by fire. Again, 4M-District 2, includes last year’s State Champions, Seminole, which most area school wouldn’t even schedule if given the option. But, we are building a powerhouse at Evans, and competition against the best aligns with that goal. This won’t be a playoff year for the mighty Trojans of E-High, but it will be a growth year for us, and that’s great news to me.

Watch this space.

Special thanks to our partners, Media Nine, and the Trojans Media Club at Evans High School for the photos used in this article.