WINDERMERE With a varsity roster already depleted by injury and becoming more reliant on younger players, Windermere Prep has reached survive-and-advance mode in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference football playoffs.

The top-seeded Lakers successfully managed that role on Friday afternoon, defeating second-round opponent Legacy Charter 49-14 on the strength of a 28-point third quarter.

Kai Patterson had four touchdown passes for the third consecutive game – giving the sophomore quarterback 26 TD throws on the season – as Windermere Prep improved to 10-0 overall and qualified for next week’s SSAC Coastal League championship game in Vero Beach.

“We had 18 [players] on active roster today. We can’t even do full practices right now with just a lot of weird and crazy stuff from an injury standpoint,” Lakers head coach Jacob Doss said. “I told our boys after the game that I wish we had come out and played the first half the same way we did in the second half, but we had five freshmen going both ways today and anytime you get deep in the playoffs you can kind of see their eyes are a little wider and we kept trying to calm them a bit.

“You could see a couple mental mistakes from the younger players in the first half – stuff they don’t normally do – but they came out in the second half and they started to play loose. The playbook opens up a little bit when they do that. When you play at fast, high-paced level like that, you can’t really make mistakes.”

Up next for the Lakers is a trip to St. Edward’s School on Saturday, Nov. 12, for a 7 p.m. kickoff against St. Edward’s. The Pirates, who dropped a 36-32 home decision to Windermere Prep in September, secured their place in the Coastal League title game with Friday’s 30-28 victory over Orlando Christian Prep.

The Coastal and Coral league champions will subsequently meet in the SSAC’s 3rd annual Florida Bowl on Nov. 19 at Pennington Field (The Master’s Academy) in Oviedo.

Windermere Prep’s current roster features 11 seniors who took part in their final home game. The Lakers scored all 49 points within a span of 24 minutes, 13 seconds, and started a running clock after Robert Brand’s 48-yard touchdown run and Will Mackenzie’s extra point with 11:37 remaining.

All-SSAC First Team running back Ismael Cortes opened the scoring with a 2-yard run as time expired in the first quarter, capping a 44-yard drive. Patterson added a 2-point pass to Mason Russell for an 8-0 lead.

Legacy Charter (6-4), which was playing its third consecutive game away from home, reached the Windermere Prep 11-yard line early in the second quarter. But a sack and fumble resulted in a 19-yard loss and the Eagles missed on a fourth-down pass into the end zone.

The Lakers then drove 70 yards. Cortes had two rushes for 29 yards to the Legacy Charter 19-yard line, before Patterson faked a sideline throw and found Matthew Kane down the middle to make it 14-0 with 6:16 remaining in the first half.

Legacy Charter’s defense held tough in the first half, as Jason Dennison batted down a fourth-down pass with the Lakers driving inside the red zone just before halftime. But the third quarter proved pivotal as Cortes (3-yard run), All-Conference Second Team wide receiver Will Seelman (21- and 40-yard TD receptions) and Reston Sweetney (85-yard TD catch) reached the end zone for the Lakers.

Adiel Aguiar’s interception early in the third quarter set up Seelman’s 21-yard scoring catch, which gave the Lakers a 27-0 lead.

Senior quarterback Hilton Lamprecht threw a pair of third-quarter touchdown passes for Legacy Charter – a 74-yarder to Walker Phillips and a 20-yarder to Zachary Kelley. Kelley, who had an impressive game on offense, defense and special teams, also caught a 2-point conversion.

The Eagles were coming off a dramatic 24-22 win over Faith Christian on Oct. 27 in their first-ever SSAC playoff game.