FWB travels to Mosley for key District 2-4A game

FORT WALTON BEACH — On the eve of a season-defining game for the Fort Walton Beach football team, the quarterback position Luke Barnes left in flux is still a work in progress.

Fort Walton Beach (4-3, 1-1 District 2-4A) lost Barnes to a season-ending ACL injury in an Oct. 23 loss to Niceville, and his replacement at District 2-4A opponent Mosley (3-4, 0-2) at 7 tonight will be a game-time decision.

Even with a bye week to figure it out, replacing the school’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns isn’t exactly a quick fix. It’ll come down to backups Will Fowler and Drew Smith or JV starter Ryan Thompson, though Vikings coach Mike Owens did say “they’ll probably all play a little bit” after all three have gotten reps in practice since Barnes’ injury.

“It’s really kind of a devastating thing for our kids to have a guy that’s been such a part of our program for four years (get injured), it’s been a discouraging thing for them,” Owens said. “But it was a good thing that we got a week off and we’ve kind of gotten past that and we know what we’ve got to do.”

Regardless of who starts, the offense will be working with a shortened playbook and will likely be leaning more on the run than in games past. It’s a massive change for an offense that’s leaned on Barnes’ arm since he took over as a sophomore two years ago.

“It’s a big change, but they say that a receiver’s real name is we’re the retrievers, so we’ve just got to go out there and make catches no matter who’s throwing us the ball,” receiver Carter Liufau said.

With the last round of regular season district games looming this weekend, all four teams are still in contention for the playoffs, and Owens said that the Vikings will have to play one of their best games of the year to stay in the hunt.

While the Vikings’ playoff status will be dependent on Friday’s Crestview-Niceville outcome, a win against Mosley would go a long way toward sewing up a playoff bid or, at worst, a shootout. If Fort Walton Beach loses, it would need Niceville (2-0 district) to beat Crestview (1-1 district) to force a three-team playoff for the second spot in the playoffs.

“This game is huge for us because it’s live or die right now,” Liufau said. “This is probably our biggest game of the season so far, that’s how we’re looking at it. We’re using that as our motivation, that if we win we’re in.”

How Barnes’ replacements perform will likely be of the utmost importance.

“It may be a little different with the wideouts, because each (quarterback) throws a little different,” Owens said. “We’ve tried to work them all hard the last two weeks and we’ve got a plan and we’ll see what happens.”