BY CLIFF SMELLEY
The Bradford and Cocoa high school football teams will meet up for the third time in four years, but this time, the stakes are lower as the Tornadoes and Tigers will play each other in a preseason kickoff classic on Friday, Aug. 15, at 7 p.m. in Cocoa.
Kickoff classics, which don’t count in the win-loss column, tend to be divided into varsity and junior varsity halves, so this game will be nothing like the previous two times Bradford and Cocoa met. In 2022, the Tornadoes hosted the Tigers in a state semifinal game that Cocoa won 31-21. The teams then played for the Class 2S state title in 2023, with the Tigers winning 20-6.
Cocoa is seeking its fourth straight state championship.
The Tigers lost quite a bit of offensive firepower from last season, including quarterback Brady Hart, who accounted for 4,630 yards and 40 touchdowns. The graduated signal caller is now at Texas A&M University.
Gone, too, is leading receiver Jayvan Boggs, who’s now at FSU. He had 2,133 yards and 21 touchdowns for the Tigers last season.
In all, the Tigers lost their top three receivers from last year.
Champ Smith, a junior transfer from Boca Raton’s Spanish River, will be the new quarterback. He played in four games last season, completing 29 of 44 passes for 618 yards and eight touchdowns. Smith has an offer from Kentucky.
Senior running back Latrison Lane led Cocoa in rushing last year with 763 yards and 19 touchdowns on 138 carries.
The Tigers, as a team, rushed for an average of 118.9 yards per game, while passing for an average of 319.9 yards per game. Cocoa scored an average of 39.9 points per game.
Cocoa’s defense, which allowed 14.8 points per game, graduated three of its top four tacklers, but senior linebacker Tyion Jacobs returns. The Florida Atlantic commit was second last year in tackles with 122.
Senior defensive back C.J. Hester, a Florida commit, led the team in interceptions in 2024 with four. He was also sixth in tackles with 72.
O’kece Battle, another senior defensive back, was fifth on the team in tackles with 81.
The defensive unit will also feature a couple of transfers in senior defensive end Jermaine Waters, a three-star recruit who previously played at Melbourne, and junior linebacker Kyree Brooks, who led Washington (Charles Town, West Virginia) in tackles last season with 143. Brooks also had eight sacks and five interceptions.
It’s easy to say the kickoff classic is a game with nothing on the line, but both teams would like to have a strong outing as a springboard into the season.
The game also holds some interest in the fact that it’s a matchup between two of the best programs in Class 2S/2A over the last three years. Cocoa had a 36-7 record during that span, while Bradford’s record was 36-5. With that in mind, who knows? The game could serve as a bit of a preview of a future playoff matchup.
