Deltona and Matanzas were supposed to play Thursday night’s high school football game on the first Friday in September but the Florida weather had a different plan. Unfortunately, the rescheduled matchup devolved into a brawl after the final whistle.
Both teams got involved.
Florida’s governing body for high school football will review the situation this weekend. Any punishments will be announced early next week.
Deltona won the Florida high school football game.
Established in 1988, Deltona High School is located ~35 miles north of Orlando in Deltona, Florida. Established in 2005, Matanzas High School is located ~50 miles further north of Deltona. Both schools enroll between 1,700 and 1,900 students.
The Wolves compete in Class 4A, District 6. The Pirates compete in Class 5A, District 3. They were scheduled to play a non-conference matchup on Sept. 4. It was postponed after a 90-minute lightning delay.
Both teams had bye weeks scheduled for this weekend. Neither team wanted to kick off after 9:00 p.m. They decided to bump the game from Week 3 to Week 7. It was finally played on Thursday.
Deltona ultimately defeated Matanzas by a final score of 21-12. The Wolves forced and recovered three fumbles and intercepted two passes during the win and jumped out to a three-score lead near the end of the third quarter that they would not give back.
The Pirates made a change at quarterback late in the third quarter and started to rally.
However, they could not complete the comeback. Deltona moved to 3-3. Matanzas dropped to 1-5. The losing team could not control their emotions after the game.
Matanzas started the brawl in the handshake line.
The Florida high school football game was chippy throughout all four quarters with multiple unsportsmanlike penalties. One player was ejected for a punch. Another was flagged for something similar. It reached its boiling point after the clock hit zero.
A Matanzas player shoved a Deltona player out of the handshake line, which led a group of Wolves to surround the instigator. The situation quickly escalated when the Pirates jumped in to help out their teammate. Mayhem ensued. The majority of both rosters got involved with multiple fights all over the field.
Coaches and police deputies stepped in to break things up. It took them more than 90 seconds to deescalate the situation.
A massive brawl took place between Deltona and Matanzas after Deltona’s 21-12 victory.
— Zach Allen (@zachallen0) October 2, 2026
It was brewing all game, and it boiled over in the handshake line. pic.twitter.com/F0oAQbx96m
Fortunately, both head coaches confirmed that nobody was hurt during the brawl.
Matanzas head coach Matt Forrest told the Daytona Beach News Journal that he is not going to rush to judgement about what happened because he did not see it in real time. The FHSAA will review the footage this week.
“I was at the front of the line. We had coaches throughout the line. So again, all that stuff will be pending on FHSAA review. Obviously, that’s why they record the handshake lines from start to finish. All that stuff will get reviewed by them, and we’ll wait and see what happens as a result of that.”
Deltona head coach Matt Martin does not think his team was at fault.
“I’m not going to condone anything that happened. I’m going to continue to watch it. I didn’t see one of our guys throw a (punch). Their guy took our guy, shoved him out of line and then took him to the ground. And then obviously all of our guys got around, and then it was one of those big piles. Then it just doesn’t look good”
The FSAA will implement any disciplinary actions at the beginning of next week. Suspensions are possible (if not likely) on both sides.