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Which game(s) has you excited? South Florida (8 games) Carol City(8-0) @ Central(8-1) 6AD16 matchup to decide the district champion. Central has won 8 of the past 10 meetings, including a 26-13 win last season. Coral Gables(5-3) @ Columbus(7-1) 8AD14 matchup that will decide the district champion. Columbus has won 14 of the last 19 meetings, including a 21-7 win last season. South Dade(7-1) @ Southridge(6-2) 8AD16 matchup. South Dade has won 11 of the past 17 meetings, including a 14-7 win last season. North Miami(5-3) @ Hialeah(7-1) 8AD13 matchup to decide the district champion. N Miami has won 5 of the last 9 meetings, including a 19-6 win last season. Western(7-1) @ Miramar(4-3) 8AD12 matchup. Miramar has won 8 of the last 9 meetings, including a 27-25 win last year. Western won 7-6 the previous year. 4ACocoa(6-2) @ 1APahokee(5-4) There is a history of interesting matchups between Brevard County and the Muck. Cocoa won 45-0 last season at home. Barron Collier(7-1) @ Naples(7-1) 6AD12 matchup to decide the district champion. "The Crosstown Showdown" rivalry game. Naples has won the last 19 games, including a 16-15 win last season. Charlotte(7-1) @ Port Charlotte(6-2) 6AD10 matchup. Charlotte has won the past 5 meetings. The last 2 games have been decided by less than a TD. Central Florida (7 games) Apopka(6-2) @ Wekiva(7-1) 8AD4 matchup. These teams have met 11 times. Wekiva has won only once...last year, 22-14. George Jenkins(6-2) @ Osceola(7-1) 8AD7 matchup to decide the district champion. Osceola has won the past 3 meetings in dominating fashion. Lakeland(9-0) @ Kathleen(5-3) 7AD7 matchup to decide the district champion. Rivalry game. Lakeland has won 23 of the past 25 games, including a 10-3 win last year. Kathleen won 14-7 the previous year. 7 of those 14 games were decided by 7 points or less. Tampa Bay Tech(7-1) @ Plant City(8-1) 7AD9 matchup. TBT has won 6 of the past 8 meetings, including a 62-21 win last season. Hardee(8-0) @ Desoto County(6-2) 5AD11 matchup. These two have split their last 4 meetings. Hardee won 34-0 last season. Rivalry game (Walter F Buck Carlton Trophy) Clearwater Central Catholic(9-0) @ Cardinal Mooney(8-0) 3AR3 matchup. CCC has won the last 8 meetings, including a 24-3 win last season. Venice(7-1) @ Palmetto(6-2) 7AD11 matchup. Venice has won the past 6 meetings, including a 42-16 win last season. North Florida (5 games) Buchholz(6-2) @ Bartram Trail(5-3) 7AD3 matchup. Buchholz has won 3 of the last 5 meetings. BT won last year 53-21. Lee(6-1) @ Fletcher(6-2) 7AD2 matchup. Lee has won the last 3 meetings, including a 20-6 win last season. Flagler Palm Coast(7-2) @ Mandardin(5-3) 8AD1 matchup. FPC has won 4 of the past 7 meetings, including a 24-17 2OT win last season. 4ARaines(7-1) @ 7ALincoln(6-2) Raines won 49-24 at home last season. Gulf Breeze(7-1) @ Navarre(6-1) 6AD2 matchup that will decide the district champion. Navarre has won 10 of the last 11 games, but the last 2 have been decided by one TD or less. Gulf Breeze won in 2016. Rivalry game(Public Peach Bowl Cup) Niceville(7-1) @ Crestview(6-2) 6AD3matchup and Okaloosa County rivalry game that will decide the district champion. Crestview has won 3 of the last 5 games, including a 35-18 win last season. Niceville won 30 in a row prior to that.

If Apopka's defense can play as well as it did against West Orange, I think Wekiva scores no more than 14. If Wekiva scores 14 or less, Apopka has a solid chance of winning this game. If Wekiva scores 28 or more, I don't think this Apopka team will be able to score enough points to win, particularly with the depletion of the team's offense due mostly to injuries. Anyone attending needs to get there early as Wekiva's small stadium will be standing room only for any late comers!

Kathleen's 5-3 record is very misleading. They are literally 2 plays away from being 3-5 They lost 35-0 to Vanguard and 26-0 to Sebring, both games at home. Sure they will be jacked up playing their cross-town foe but Lakeland is 5 TD's better than them, and that may be generous only because of the rival factor.

I love that you post these topics OldschoolLion! Cocoa vs Pahokee is worth the price of admission and a soda. TBT vs Plant City will be really good. Apopka over Wekiva, that will be great as well! Lakeland vs Kathleen. Lots of good games.

you know your coach can call but if you need me to I'll let him know you are interested.

@DarterBlue2 Also i will keep a eye out and hopefully find out what interest is there on Columbia end for playing Apopka As the athletic director Faulkner said at the game when you spoke to him he leaves the scheduling decisions in the hands of the coaches so it will be up to the coaches at Columbia, I'll try to keep myself in loop on their interest and if Columbia wants to make a game happen I'll give you a heads up and maybe see if you can get Darlington to contact Columbia when they both start building schedules for next year I don't think Columbia will have any problem having interest in playing Apopka if the schedule can be set up and work well on both sides The annually renewed games he mentioned are likely the Gainesville and Buchholz games Suwannee would also be included but I've also heard that game could be up in the air but it remains to be seen, i personally think we should take a cycle off from playing Suwannee but no guarantees they will Trinity will probably end up staying on there if both teams can work out a time on schedule Madison may end up staying but never know Bolles game likely depends on how the game in 2 weeks goes, if Columbia beats Bolles by 30 it probably gets dropped next year Plus we still don't know what district we will be in next year

Anthony Carter Suncoast

In order to get to the top 3 or even the top 10 you have to have played and defeated elite teams and pretty much gone undefeated. Where have CC, MC, and STA beaten elite teams? Have any of these teams played elite type teams week in an week out? Have any of them gone on the road OOS to defeat any team? Sorry, have to disagree with your assessment. I don't think that any Florida team this season, with the exception of IMG, can be considered a top team. Every time that IMG has played MC they have defeated them pretty handily. STA won't play IMG. Don't know about CC.

Venice vs Palmetto! Huge Matchup with the district title on the line!

Have finished adding historical information for each of the matchups listed in the original post. As if Central vs Carol City is not enough, Southridge vs South Dade promises to be a close game. South Dade just lost to Palmetto in OT, opening the door for Southridge to claim the 8AD16 title with a win. If South Dade wins, these 3 teams should all end up with one district loss. And Miramar vs Western up the road in Broward promises to be a good game. Miramar won by 2 points last year and Western won 7-6 the year before. With a win, Western can claim the 8AD12, something it has been wanting for a long time. A loss sets up a 3-way tie between these two and Plantation. Plantation beat Miramar and Western beat Plantation earlier this season.

1. In terms of raw talent, athlete to athlete, I think Columbia is two to three touchdowns better than Fletcher. However, on any given night, as Fletcher demonstrated, they could pull the upset, as they are a well coached team. 2. Regarding making it to the Panhandle a strange thing happened. I got to Tallahassee at approximately noon. Between the first and second exit there, a Tire Maintenance warning came on (I had used a rental car, as I got a decent weekend deal, and did not want to put that many miles on my vehicle). So I got off at the second exit found a gas station and proceeded to check the air pressure level in the tires. It was fine. However, not wanting to run the risk I called the rental car company. It turns out the local number I had did not help as they had closed at noon. So I had to search the Internet for a national number. As I had not taken out the roadside assistance option, I was told to take it to the nearest Firestone or Goodyear service branch, as they were no Tallahassee offices of the rental car company open past twelve on Saturday (they have arrangements with both Firestone and Goodyear). Well the nearest one was fifteen minutes away. When I got there, I had to wait over an hour and a half due to the number of customers ahead of me. Well when they finally checked the car out, the verdict was that some idiot had set the tire rotation and balance schedule for every 250 miles which is totally ridiculous. The mechanic reset it to 2,500 miles and told me everything else seemed okay. As neither the owners manual or any other service record had been left in the vehicle, he could not vouch that anything else needed to be done, but said the diagnostics on the vehicle did not identify any pressing issues and I should be fine driving the rest of the weekend. 3. The above debacle took three and a half hours from start to finish. So when I got out of the Firestone it was 3:30 pm. After thinking about it carefully, I decided to return to Orlando as Tally is still over an hour away from the hurricane damage, and I reasoned that if I continued the trip and stayed in Bay County for any length of time I would have to spend the night in either Tally or Lake City on the way back, as I would be returning to Central Florida too late. I decided not to incur another hotel charge. I plan on letting the rental car company know that they partially destroyed my weekend with their incompetence and hopefully get a partial rebate. I can say this, though. The roads into Bay County have been opened and there was quite a lot of traffic going up that way. I still plan of doing my small part to help out. Need to identify a charity I can trust to make a donation to them.

You told me quite a bit about both teams last night I'm actually thinking of slightly leaning Apopka pulling out the minor upset against Wekiva

In case anyone is interested, Collinsworth ran a 10.0 100-yard dash(not 100 meter like today) to win the 3A title in 1976. That was a very respectable time for that era. That same year, Houston McTear competed in the 2A meet for Baker High. McTear is one of the greatest high school sprinters ever and the only Florida sprinter to ever win 4 state titles in both the 100 and 200 events. For those of you who think kids back then were not as fast as today...McTear ran a 9.0 100-yard dash. That is the equivalent of a 9.8 100-meter dash. Anthony Schwartz of American Heritage(and now Auburn) ran a 10.15 last year.

The Bulls and the Tornadoes lost their big games this weekend against Central and Carol City, but put up a fight. Northwestern is 3-5 and has lost to IMG, Carol City, Central, Columbus and South Dade. Washington is 4-5 and has lost to Carol City, Central, Columbus, Chaminade-Madonna, and Northwestern. Let's be real. If some of the current top 25 teams in Florida played the same schedules, they might very well have losing records right now. At the very least, they would have some more losses.

I have several comments. First, Columbia High Fan was an exceptional host. He is passionate about his Alma Mater's football program and gave me some neat memorabilia to take home. Second, this Columbia team is very talented. It has at least three very good wide receivers, a solid tailback and a QB that is an exceptional runner with a strong arm. At times he overthrew his receivers, but I believe he is a junior, so that can be worked on. The defense is solid (sort of the bend but don't break variety), but I was more impressed with the talent on offense. Third, while Columbia is right in that his team did look sloppy, at least some of this was due to great coaching on the part of Fetcher. Their staff had obviously looked at CHS's film very carefully and identified weakness that they exploited. Several of the fumbles were actual strips of the football and I believe this may have to do with properly securing the football after the catch. Fourth, having seen Columbia and Lakeland live and St. Thomas on film, my thoughts are as follows. If we go on raw talent alone, Columbia will beat Lakeland. However, Bill Castle, Lakeland's legendary coach, will exploit any weakness that show up on film. So, Columbia needs to work on its weaknesses. A repeat of last night, would probably result in a Columbia loss to the Dreadnaughts. Columbia playing its best game would have a shot at beating this year's St. Thomas, which is very good, but not one of the great Aquinas teams I have seen in the past. Fifth, I really hope Apopka and Columbia can work out a home and home. I know Apopka will have at least three slots to fill and I think this game would be good for both programs. Sixth, Columbia's QB is an exceptional athlete. In the right program he could excel as a dual threat QB. Other programs may want to convert him to a wide receiver or slot receiver. Still others may fancy him on the defensive side of the ball if he has mean streak. Regardless, he will make some college program very happy. Seventh, Lake City is bigger than I thought. Passing it on I-75, you would think you were passing a real small town. But it actually has quite a bit of bustle to it, and several chain restaurants, as well as at least one great, local Italian restaurant, are located there. The food at the Italian place was copious and for $18 I had Baked Ziti, a huge salad and a double portion of Garlic Bread. In the Orlando area I would have paid at least mid twenties for the meal I had there. Eighth, CHS has a large stadium that rivals DP, Cypress Creek and University in size. There was a large home crowd on hand as it was Homecoming. Fletcher also traveled pretty well considering the length of the trip. Ninth, this may be the best Fletcher team since the one that lost to Apopka in the third round in 2012. It would be a shame if it does not make the playoffs. Tenth, if Columbia makes it to Orlando for the state title game I would be happy to introduce Columbia Fan to the bunch of old geezers that usually meet up for the finals. The youngest of them is actually mid thirties but to a recent high school grad, even that age may seem pretty old. Would be happy to treat to dinner before the game (the 7A title is usually the night game).

In the 1979 state playoffs all-everything LB Wilbur Marshall kicked the game winning FG to beat LWales 9-7. Yes, he kicked FG's as well. LW featured 2 all-state RB's, one was named Lorenzo Hampton who would go on to star at UFlorida and the Miami Dolphins. That '79 team was one of the best in LWales school history, but they were foolish to give up their home field advantage against Astronaut and move the game from their 4K seat stadium to 10K Denison Stadium in WHaven. Even today, nearly 40 years later, many feel that move may have cost the Highlanders a state championship. https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

Sure they could. But, it would take them quite some time to do so and one wonders whether any of those teams are really good enough to take on national powers on a regular basis. May be a one shot deal against a top 10 team. But, not on a regular basis. Not even STA. Just my opinion though.

I think what Dillard is referring to is the out of state teams that IMG plays on a consistent basis and for the most part on their fields is something that teams like STA, MC, MNW, and CC could not maintain. IMG plays a national power almost every Friday or Saturday. None of the 4 teams mentioned could win much more than 3 or 4 games, if even that, playing IMG's schedule. Those teams haven't a clue what it is like to fly 3,000 miles and then play a national power and win. And then to do it again in a week.

Chris Collinsworth Wilbur Marshall Jay Donnelly Titusville Astronaut UF

...concerning polls and rankings. In the dinosaur days, there were fewer classes, large districts,and teams scheduled non-district games without worrying nearly as much about reputations, polls and playoff rankings. Today, the scheduling is like a ballet. I think there was arguably a better chance than today that the best teams would run into each other at some point. When one won a 4A title in the 70's, that was a huge deal,and some felt that the 4A champion was kinda the uncrowned champion of Florida. Today we have the best larger-school programs spread out amongst 4 classes. It's just the nature of the beast. I struggle taking today's polls very seriously for a couple of reasons. In more recent years, we have teams in close proximity that seldom, if ever, play each other, ie Lakeland vs Armwood, St Thomas vs Dade powers, etc. And we have playoff paths in some classes that are ridiculously easy and in which the best teams from certain parts of the state do not meet always meet up with the best from other parts of the state. It's the "cost" of our current systems. Today we are so externally focused as both individuals and organizations. "Am I good-looking?" "Am I thin enough?" "Is my team ranked high enough in the polls?" We seem to need constant affirmation. A good coach knows how to assess his team's progress without a lot of external cues, and to find satisfaction in knowing "we are better than yesterday." I find the same philosophy works well in all aspects of life. I can look myself in the mirror and easily see my own flaws and opportunities for improvement without comparing myself to you. It's not the end of the world if certain teams never meet up and prove superiority. It's all about improvement, especially at the hs level. Could the Bulls and Tornadoes beat a number of teams ranked higher than them? Who cares! What is important is that the kids feel good about themselves, not what other people think.

I agree with you as well I was shocked to be honest when Dillard was up on Booker t 6-0 for a little more then half the first quarter and for it to be only 12-6 tornadoes with 3 min left in the second quarter before they scored to lead 20-6 at half ....not to make this about Dillard @SPCjessica2004 @OldSchoolLion @ColumbiaHighFan2017class but for them to go toe to toe with Booker t for a half then turn around and go to WESTERN the same team who went up 20-0 on them at Dillard and won to turn around this year and go to Western against a wildcats squad as good or even better then last year and basically have their way with them if it wasn't for the 6 touchdowns called back on Dillard with two of those being in the last two min of the game. Since then Western has NOT lost since and in that spand Western has beaten a quietly very solid hallandale squad who gave gibbons all they could handle and then some at gibbons then they beat undefeated plantation just last week. Even tho Dillard will not win a title this year or even make it pass the second round probably not even first depending on who we get but we are certainly becoming a dangerous team.

My name is above your name in the standings. You can hold my trophy

It's interesting that all of a sudden people out there feel you have to be playing teams 7 hours away to prove you better when people also stated before that they teams used to prove themselves without needing to play elite out of area teams Both could make a reasonable argument for one or the other but when its the same person making a argument for both ways I see that as playing both sides of the field and not truly staying consistent and unbiased Just food for thought

How many examples can we find like this? Treasure Coast beat Cocoa 35-29. Cocoa beat Mainland 44-27. Mainland beat Treasure Coast 36-22. We are talking about high school kids, whose performance game-to-game is less stable than more mature athletes. And we are talking about high school teams, even the best of whom sometimes have performance gaps at certain positions that can be exploited by certain teams that appear to be inferior on paper. You would be hard pressed to find an NCAA team ranked 70th in the country who could compete with a top 10 team. But that's not the case in high school. There are plenty of "unranked" high school teams out there who have just the right talent at certain positions, and come in with just the right mindset on a certain night, to beat one of the big boys. Sometimes that top-ranked hs team simply has not yet found their "nightmare" matchup yet. It is a coaching art to peak a team for the playoffs. It's funny, but nowadays, with all of the attention to polls, people want teams flying out of the gates from game 1. Believe it or not, some coaches do not want their their teams performing too well too soon during the season.

No doubt, I agree with you. Booker T. is playing excellent football despite their record. I would love to see Booker T. play some of the powers outside of Miami. I'm excited at the potential Uschool vs Booker T. game. I don't think Uschool has played the toughest schedule, but they' run teams off the field. Booker T. has played a super tough schedule, but they'll be prepared for battle in the playoffs.

...some observations. 8APalmetto pulls off OT win over undefeated South Dade. Palmetto also gave Naples its only loss of the season. Their only loss is to Southridge in brutal 8AD16. 8AWinter Park's D is giving up 6 points per game, on average. 5AGodby is averaging 42 points per game on offense. 4ACocoa..the good news is they are scoring, on average, 40 points per game...the bad news is they are allowing, on average, 25 points per game.

This is a great point! These two teams are always traditional powers. In a lot of cases the south Florida powers are forced to play each other since very few teams are willing to play them. There's also a lot of historic and traditional rivalries between these schools. Looking at the current top 25 MP teams, I would agree; however, Northwestern despite the record is a top 25 team. Washington probably is a top 40 team in all reality. This isn't the Booker T. team of years past, but they're still really awesome. When you go through a gauntlet of Coral Gables, Chaminade-Madonna and Carol City you should be given some slack for going 1-2 against that bunch. Not many others would do better unless they were IMG caliber athletically.