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FLAG FOOTBALL CLASS 1A STATE SEMIFINALS PREVIEW
Who: Coconut Creek vs. Harmony
What: Class 1A State Semifinal
When: Friday, May 13 at 3:30 pm
Where: Jack Peters Field at Robinson High School (Tampa); Address: 6311 S. Lois Ave., Tampa, FL 33616
Tickets: $8.00 per session (all of Friday’s games count as one session)
Parking: $5.00 per car, $50.00 per bus. All proceeds go to Hillsborough County Schools.
Live Webcast: NFHS Network ($9.95 for day pass)
Records: Coconut Creek, 16-0; Harmony, 13-3
Looking at the Rankings: Coconut Creek – Ranked No. 3 in FloridaHSFootball.com’s Class 1A Flag Football Rankings. Ranked No. 2 in Joe Pinkos’ Class 1A Power 25 Rankings; Harmony – Ranked No. 10 in FloridaHSFootball.com’s Class 1A Flag Football Rankings. Ranked No. 13 in Joe Pinkos’ Class 1A Power 25 Rankings.
ABOUT THE COCONUT CREEK LADY COUGARS
Head Coach: Robert Carradine
Years As Head Coach: 10th year
As the one of only two undefeated teams that will play in this weekend’s Flag Football State Championship games, Coconut Creek has a lot of expectations riding into Friday’s state semifinal games.
However, the road to getting to Tampa hasn’t been this easy for Coconut Creek. Considering that Stranahan was close to knocking the Lady Cougars in the District 1A-13 Tournament at the end of last month, that was a big enough scare. But the bigger scare came against first-year Miami Edison in the Regional Finals this past Tuesday, only slipping by with a 7-0 win.
While the statistics provided by Coconut Creek via the FHSAA are vague, some information provided by Coach Carradine tells us that senior Ambresha Long is the leader of the offense who is a four-year starter at both the quarterback and safety positions. We do know she has rushed for 710 yards this season and has accounted for 20 of the teams 53 total touchdowns that have been scored so far this season. Sophomore receiver Anair Dozier has accounted for 710 receiving yards and 15 total touchdowns.
Defensively for the Lady Cougars, Long has accounted for 18 interceptions this season while Dozier herself has had 12 interceptions. Senior Sheldy Apollon, has averaged 8 flag pulls per game this season has also rushed for 450 yards and scored 11 total touchdowns as well.
Coach Talks About His Team
As part of our preview, we reached out to the coaches of each Flag Football team. Here is what Coach Robert Carradine had to say:
On the most challenging thing the team has faced this season: “Just staying focus on weaker teams. I have 9 seniors and they love the challenge of good teams, but not [staying] focused of weaker teams.”
On the easiest thing the team has faced this season: “Running offense. We improve and add things every week. They learned to use it well in games.”
Would he change anything he has done that has gotten the team to this point?: “No, we corrected the mistakes of last year of not having depth. This year we rotated at all the positions so we don’t fall off if someone got hurt.”
What he knows about opponent Harmony: “No I don’t”
3/9 – Oakland Park Northeast, W 59-0
3/10 – Coral Springs, W 22-0
3/16 – Pembroke Pines Charter, W 27-8
3/17 – Archbishop McCarthy, W 18-6
3/31 – Pompano Beach, W, 48-0
4/6 – Douglas, W 40-6
4/8 – Hallandale, W 22-0
4/11 – Boyd Anderson, W 24-0
4/13 – Stranahan, W 34-6
4/14 – Dillard, W 26-6
4/18 – South Plantation, W 26-6
4/20 – Coral Glades, W, 39-0
4/26 – Stranahan, W 14-12*
4/28 – Pembroke Pines Charter, W 27-12*
5/6 – Monsignor Pace, W 13-0**
5/10 – Miami Edison, W 7-0**
* – District 1A-13 Tournament
** – Playoff Game
ABOUT THE HARMONY LADY LONGHORNS
Head Coach: Paul Strauch
Years As Head Coach: 10th year
One of the more successful teams in Central Florida has been the Harmony Lady Longhorns who has finished at least even or with a winning season dating back to 2007. As a matter of fact Coach Strauch’s record just eclipsed the 100 win mark this season as he now has 104 wins through the Regional Finals.
Continuing to look at Harmony’s past, this is not their first trip to state as prior to this season there was also state quarterfinals. However, this is the furthest in the bracket that Harmony has been in the playoffs reaching the Final Four for the first time in school history. And the trip to this point hasn’t been easy.
Looking back on the schedule Harmony has faced some considerable opponents this season having beaten a solid Deerfield Beach team (7-6), a formidable opponent in Dr. Phillips (12-0), but falling to Apopka (18-0) in the last game of the season, to just name a few. Throw in the challenge that Fort Pierce Westwood gave in the Regional Finals (12-6 OT win), you can pretty much say Harmony has seen it all.
Offensively, the Longhorns leaders have been junior quarterback Shaye Herman who has 27 TD passes so far to go along with 4 rushing TDs. Harman has also had 3 INTs on defense as well. Favorite targets for Herman include senior Kaley Hyatt who has 7 TD receptions so far as well 3 INTs while freshman Bryn Hudson has had 6 TD receptions so far. Seniors Kayla Hamilton and Abby Fitzpatrick also are targets of Herman and both have collected up 4 TDs each as well as 2 interceptions each on defense.
The leader on defense is no other than junior Bree Pope who has collected up 8 interceptions so far with one returned a touchdown. Another defensive player to watch out for is junior Farah Lowe who made the key interception that helped the Lady Longhorns defeat Fort Pierce Westwood in the Regional Finals.
Coach Talks About His Team
As part of our preview, we reached out to the coaches of each Flag Football team. Here is what Coach Paul Strauch had to say:
On the most challenging thing the team has faced this season: “Keeping people healthy and adjusting to our opponent while trying to become more consistent.”
On the easiest thing the team has faced this season: “Working hard.”
Would he change anything he has done that has gotten the team to this point?: “No, everything that we went through helped form who we are.”
What he know about opponent Coconut Creek: “They are undefeated and have great athletes. Ranked in top 3 in all 1A polls”
3/9 – Celebration, W 18-6
3/23 – Kissimmee Gateway, W 26-6
3/29 – Edgewater, W, 30-0
3/31 – East River, W 19-0
4/5 – Poinciana, 13-6
4/7 – Jones, L 12-7
4/8 – Deerfield Beach, W 7-6
4/12 – Kissimmee Osceola, L 8-0
4/14 – Dr. Phillips, W 12-0
4/15 – Kissimmee Liberty, W 19-0
4/19 – St. Cloud, W 13-0
4/20 – Apopka, L 18-0
4/26 – Edgewater, W 32-0*
4?27 – Jones, W 15-0*
5/6 – Seabreeze, W 7-0**
5/10 – Fort Pierce Westwood, W 12-6 (OT)**
* – District 1A-10 Tournament
** – Playoff Game
OUR TAKE FOR TOMORROW
This is going to be a very interesting game to open up things for the 2016 FHSAA Girls Flag Football State Championships. Coconut Creek has been pushed to the limit several times already, yet has not lost game. Harmony has also been pushed to the limit as well, but did drop a few games. If you look at everything we have written in this preview, both teams are competitive teams that know that playing an easy schedule is not the best route to go which has helped prepared both of them to get to this point. Also with both having experienced head coaches who have a combined 20 years of coaching experience with Flag Football, it speaks to the quality of the programs both schools have built up. We expect this game to be a close one given how the playoff games have gone with both and we certainly wouldn’t be surprised if this game runs over into overtime to get things started tomorrow afternoon.
