SPCjessica2004

I wasn't expecting Pinellas to have a great night or even a very good night, but I did expect them to do better than they did. Now, this begs the question, why did I (and others) expect the teams listed above to do better than they did? If I look at all the teams that lost last night: Clearwater didn't just lose, they got ran over. What's going on with this program? People tell me they're back, and then they're not..and then POOF..they're back and then they're not back. Pinellas Park lost to Palmetto who is a lot tougher than their record appears, but all year people took pains to tell us how legit they were. I see those wins vs Dunedin, Northeast, Seminole and the other merry minimums on the schedule paid off. Largo doesn't surprise me. I think they have too much talent and not enough leadership. They've under performed all year. East Lake is at the bottom of the Lake, what happened to this program? It seems after Pete DiNovo/Artavious Scott/George Campbell and crew left they just bottomed out.

Very good question! Not many 3A teams would beat them. Chaminade and CCC are only two teams that I see could beat them. They clearly have it rolling right now. I believe they're trying to play a team from Texas as their post season game. LCS put up a great fight in that game LakelandGator. I can't really say enough about how far LCS has come this year under Danny Williams. I've been told they'll travel to Tampa Catholic next week. If that's indeed the game, it's going to be a dandy! That's a winnable game for LCS, but they have to be able to slow down TC's running attack. Tampa Catholic will have to slow down the passing attack for LCS. I'll look at that game more in-depth if it comes to fruition.

Accountability time! Picked Chaminade over Uschool 35-24. Chaminade won 35-0. I got Chaminade's score on the button, but I expected Uschool to be a little more prolific offensively. They were steamrolled in this game. Overall, I picked this winner. Picked Tampa Jesuit over TC 38-14. Jesuit won 17-7. The game wasn't as close as the final indicated. Tampa Catholic only recorded 6 offensive plays in the first half and no first downs. Granted the playing field was extremely soggy, but Jesuit had to play in it as well. Jesuit's defense is legit. Cardinal Mooney over Sarasota Booker by 7. Booker won 30-7. Mooney had a hangover effect going on from losing their winning streak last week. Booker has turned into quite a solid football program the second half of the season. Florida High over Arnold by 28. Florida High won by 11. Good ending to their season. Clearwater Academy over Lakeland Christian by 35+. CAI scored a lot of points, but LCS gave them a fight. CAI 49, LCS 31 was the final. LCS can light up a scoreboard. AHD over Everglades Prep by 35. Bingo! Orlando First Academy over Villages Charter by 7. I got this one wrong. Villages Charter ends 1st Academy's 30 something regular season winning streak. First Academy will still make noise in 3A Region 2. Ft. White over Parker by 21. Boom! 21 on the dot. Baldwin over Paxon by 35+. Boom! Baldwin won by 35. MCC over Ft. Pierce Central by 14. MCC won by 8 to finish 6-4. MCC took some lumps this year, but they are better for it now. Calvary (C-Water) over Lake Highland Prep by 7. Calvary won by 15 or 16. St. Pete Catholic over Hudson by 7. Go Barons! Finish season 6-4 and can build going forward! Westminster Christian over Palmer Trinity by 10. I was wrong, but I thought this was Westminster Christian Palmer played Westminster Academy. Blame my hubby, he screwed up! Cardinal Newman over West Boca by 21. Newman won by 16. Overall, not a bad week. Spreads were reasonable. Need to wait until tomorrow to check out the FHSAA show to see the announced standings before looking at the regional playoffs.

Chaminade destroyed University School 35-0. I was told that Uschool was out of their league in this game. Their schedule did little to prepare them for this one.

I received a nice E-mail this morning from a former Tampa Catholic coach who asked a very simple yet very complex question, "Jess and family, what do you think TC needs to do to beat Jesuit tonight?" Here is what we've come up with: 1) Start fast. TC can't play from behind. TC has an explosive offense but the teams that have defeated them (or they struggle against) tend to score first. 2) Depth Chart. Over the years the number 1 reason I hear that TC has struggled against Jesuit is depth. Jesuit will dress about 75 on varsity. Tampa Catholic will dress about 42-45. The story that is often cited is that Jesuit rotates their entire offensive and defensive line series by series to stay fresh. This was actually a statement by Jeff Carlson back when BHSN streamed their game of the week. Jeff was referring to the Malik Davis Jesuit era where that did indeed happen, but I've been told Jesuit hasn't done that since Malik graduated. Our opinion? Even though it's a true statement, it's also an excuse. Jesuit's only loss this year was to CCC. In that game CCC dressed 25 varsity players. Due to 6 starters not playing, they were forced to start a significant amount of freshmen and sophomores. Both of their lines played both ways for most if not all of the game. The 2018 version of Tampa Catholic's #1 strength is their offensive line. A game that Jesuit almost lost was to Jefferson early in the year. Jefferson didn't have the injury situation CCC did, but they only dressed about 30 varsity players that game. Jesuit held on to win, but Jefferson was right with them. 3) Mental toughness. This is the biggest and probably most uncontrollable part of the game. TC simply needs to play their game and not let Jesuit influence them. This is one of the biggest games in the state and probably a top 25 game in the entire country, it's a big spotlight on both teams. TC simply has to play their game and not get caught up in the media circus surrounding the game. For fans outside of the Tampa Bay area that aren't familiar with the TC/Jesuit rivalry- there has been some amazing coverage of the game from pretty much every news source around. Here's a small sample: Some really good news coverage of the Tampa Jesuit at Tampa Catholic game: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2018/11/01/tampa-catholic-jesuit-is-ultimate-test-of-loyalty-for-the-kelly-family/ http://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/sports/2018/11/01/kelly-family-knows-both-sides-of-jesuit-tc-rivalry

@OldSchoolLion I couldn't agree more! That was a great post :-)

Columbia, Good questions! IF (and granted it's a theoretical situation), you could take 1 3a team and have them play Chaminade I think the team that matches up best with them would be Tampa Catholic. I outlined the reasons in my previous post, but they have a huge offensive line, hard hitting linebackers and speed in the secondary to match-up with the Lions weapons. Over the course of the game, Chaminade's WR group would eventually outlast the Crusaders and get open downfield, but that would be my pick. I'm unsure about CCC. The reason I'm unsure of CCC is because the team that takes the field on November 16th will be completely different than the CCC team that took the field for those 10 wins. The good ad bad news is, they're finally healthy, but the guys they had out missed between 6-7 games and now they're likely ruining chemistry in the pressure packed situation of the playoffs. Jerzhan Newton is one of the best players in all of 3A and will be a national prospect next year, but he hasn't played since week 3. What happens to the RB that played his heart out to get the Marauders 10 wins? Same thing with the rest of the players that were out for most of the season. Do they just come in like they didn't miss a beat? While I'm glad the players injuries weren't serious and I know the players coming back are some pretty legit D-1 caliber players, I don't envy their situation going into the playoffs.

Questions time! Here are some questions I've been asked over the past few weeks that we feel are good talking points- these are also things we've discussed as well! Keep in mind the questions might be modified a bit since we're looking for patterns in questions not necessarily any one individual question: 1) Who is the biggest challenger to Chaminade's throne? Without any hesitation the answer is Tampa Catholic. TC has the athletes, coaching and most importantly line depth to potentially go blow for blow with Chaminade for the longest of any 3A team. They also have the running back depth and if you catch him on a good day, TC's QB can have a good enough game to hang with the Lions for the longest. Part of the reason for TC's depth is that they are essentially a smaller 4A team playing in 3A since they experienced a population boom in the middle of the FHSAA classification cycle. They have a huge freshmen class and a relatively small senior class. 2) At the start of the season you sounded pretty confident that FSU High School (Florida High) would represent the north. Has anything changed your mind? Honestly? No, but I do recognize that Orlando First Academy is out there at 10-0 and King's Academy just finished 9-1. Also, be on the look out for Baldwin who dismantled West Nassau to finish 9-1. Another team that is quietly having a very good season is Ft. White. Still, Florida High is the most complete team and they've played the toughest schedule. 3) How do you see 3A evolving over the next few years? Due to the FHSAA not cutting any classifications, I expect class 2A-4A to be redone almost from top to bottom. 3A in particular is in the struggle boat. Oxbridge already disbanded football. Tampa Catholic and AHD with the current cutoffs would be in 4A. My understanding is that Baldwin and Taylor County are going to 1A (rural); if they go, I doubt Ft. White stays in 3A by itself. The current cutoffs are: 1A (Rural Only) 1-600 2A 1-290 3A 291-680 4A 681-1114 I believe the FHSAA sets the cutoff numbers based on the amount of schools they're trying to fit into these classifications. So, a lot will be dependent on teams that are currently independent coming back into FHSAA region play or who does not return into FHSAA region play. Another tidbit is that I doubt teams will be able to petition down to 3A if they're classified as 4A. Despite the FHSAA's strong opinion of "no team moves down", they've consistently let Tampa Catholic play in 3A citing travel concerns. This was a fair argument on TC's part since at the time the FHSAA used a district system. In the new playoff point system I doubt any team (if classified as 4A) will be allowed to petition to move to 3A (or 3A to 2 etc..). 4) Will Jacksonville Trinity Christian return to 3A? This is a good question! Teams like Jacksonville Trinity and Bishop Verot are playing up in classification for various reasons. JaxTCA which won 4 state championshipsin a row in 3A was essentially forced into 5A due to not being able to schedule 10 games. Remember, in 2A-4A there are no districts, you're on your own to schedule your season. If the rumors I heard are true, JaxTCA was able to schedule 4 games and the rest would have been out of state. By moving to 5A they were able to be placed intro a district which helped with the scheduling issue. To the spirit of the question though. I do not expect JaxTCA to return to 3A next year. They've gone on to resounding success in 5A and would run into the same scheduling issues they experienced before. 5) Will Chaminade-Madonna move to 5A? Chaminade isn't quite in the same boat JaxTCA was a few years ago, but they're getting closer. The difference is that few of the Jacksonville area teams would willingly play JaxTCA in games that counted, the same can't be said regarding Chaminade and the Miami teams. Chaminade will always be able to play Miami Central, Booker T, Deerfield Beach, American Heritage Plantation, Columbus. I also have no doubt Carol City, Northwestern, Miramar, Gibbons would have an issue playing them as well. The issue Chaminade faces is balancing their schedule. At the end of the day, Chaminade is still a 3A school that is dependent on loans, McKay and Step-up scholarships. Their financials are regularly audited by the Arch Diocese of Miami as well. Many are quick to forget that just prior to the 2016 season, Chaminade faced a mass exodus of their talent leaving since there was a hiccup with the scholarship money. Shaun Shivers had even announced via twitter that he would be announcing his transfer school in the coming days. Chaminade was able to clear this up and become what they became. In Chaminade's case the day that they move up to 5A won't because they can't field 10 games, it will be from peer pressure in the community to play in a tougher class.

This is a great, great post and I couldn't give you a big enough thumbs up for writing it. On message boards and social medial we often talk about weekly rankings or national rankings, or how many D-1 prospects a team has. We often make respectful and heated arguments on why team A has already won a state championship before a season has begun so why have the season since the other teams are simply wasting their time. The reality is, there are far more schools simply trying to figure out how to field a football team, let alone have a winning season. We start to treat high school football like college football and when we do that we lose sight of the fact these are 12-18 year olds for the most part, not 19-24 year olds. I'm COMPLETELY guilty of this, so I'll raise my hand (so will my husband and brother!). Overall, it's a very interesting talking point going forward.

I've brought this up with Mr. Beasley before; however, there's no interest in lowering the football classifications. While the fans of high school football want to cut classifications, for the most part, the schools themselves do not. We're stuck with 8 classifications in football and will be for the forseeable future.

You can't combine 1A and 2A. 1A is rural. 2A is mostly private schools. You need to combine 2A and 3A. You do this by lowering the 3A cap from 680 to 630. This expands the new 3a, gives the new 2A more teams and the new 3A more teams.

Columbia, Good day! I'd like to wait until tomorrow evening when Baldwin plays West Nasseau. Right now, I would say Ft. White is a bigger threat to Florida High though.

The regular season is coming to a close- some teams will be playing their final game of the year, others are preparing for the playoffs. Historically, week 11 has seen teams play lesser competition, but with the new playoff point system teams are jockeying for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Let's take a look at the week to come, but first my updated top 5: #1) Chaminade-Madonna (W: 51-0 over Flanagan): Stop me if you heard this before. The Lions are rolling right now and the schedule has really started to hold its own. AL. Muscle Shoals has gone on to finish 8-2, defeating some Alabama powerhouses. Piper and Booker T. are both ranked in the top 80 in Florida, Deerfield and AH-P, the two losses Chaminade has suffered are both ranked in the top 100 teams in America by most national polls. This is typical of the Daemon Jones coached Lions- they tend to start slow and pick up steam moving forward. #2) Clearwater Central Catholic ( W: 55-20 over Cardinal Mooney): Kudos to the Marauders for being forward thinking. Earlier in the year, instead of winning games 50-0, CCC was quick to pull starters to build depth for the long run. It was probably frustrating to watch CCC give up 20 points late in games that were already decided, but the payoff for that frustration came against previously undefeated Cardinal Mooney. With a combination of 6 starters out for various reasons, the Marauders needed those young guys to help stave off a well-prepared Mooney team. CCC only gave up 27 yards rushing (total) to the Cougars. CCC's secondary also racked up 3 interceptions returned for touchdowns. With the win CCC clinched home field throughout the regional rounds and due to a pre-planned week 11 bye week and a round 1 bye the Marauders are expected to be back to full health (including Jerzhan Newton) when they start their playoff push on November 16th. #3) King's Academy ( W 22-21 over Benjamin): With Mooney, Berkeley, Florida High and Benjamin losing there was a spot open for the #3 team in 3A. The fact the Lions won wasn't an upset. King's has been one of the better 3A teams this year, but they lacked a signature win. After scoring a TD as time expired the Lions lined up for the game winning point after attempt to force overtime. After an off-sides on Benjamin the King's Academy rolled the dice and went for 2..and got it! The win gives the Lions serious momentum for the playoffs as they are also looking at the prospect of having 2 weeks off to rest. This was the signature win the Lions needed. #4) Sarasota Cardinal Mooney (L 55-20 to CCC): It's hard to drop Mooney far with quite a few other teams losing in 3A as well. They competed well in spurts against CCC, but once the Marauders got rolling, they had no response. Despite the loss, there's still some quality to Mooney's wins- that early season win over Bishop Verot is looking healthy and the wins over Berkeley and Avon Park aren't bad. The Cougars finish off their regular season against a hot Sarasota Booker team who has won 4 in a row and is likely playoff bound as a wildcard in 5A. A win here and Cardinal Mooney should have enough points to secure the 2nd round 1 bye slot. #5) Benjamin ( L 22-21 to King's Academy): The Bucs dropped their first game of the year, but with AH-D having 3 losses, should still secure a 1st round bye. Benjamin has had a strong season and 1 loss doesn't change that, especially they were defeated with literally no time on the clock. Benjamin's season is finished at this point and now they await to see who they are matched-up with in the playoffs. -------------------- #6) Tampa Catholic: Crusaders head into Jesuit week 7-2. #7) Orlando First Academy: The Royals knocked off Lake Highland Prep and are quickly moving up my rankings late in the season. #8) Florida High: Seminoles are hanging in their after a highly competitive loss to Godby. Still my pick to represent the north. #9) American Heritage Delray: Stallions defense is playing well, if the offense catches fire- they can make noise. #10) Baldwin: Plays on Monday against West Nasseau- will move up with a win. GAMES OF THE WEEK FOR WEEK 11 Chaminade-Madonna (7-2) at University School (9-0) Chaminade has lost to the #1 team in 8A, the #1 team in 5A (at the time of the games) and will now try their luck against the #1 team in 4A. This is not the same Chaminade team from week 1 and 5 respectively. The Lions defense has clamped down, the offense is lighting up the score board and there seems to almost be a synchronous harmony within the team. They aren't looking to the playoffs, they're looking at this week. University School has done a good job rebuilding their program and is one of the favorites in Class 4A. A tough running back/QB combination, a solid offensive/defensive line and a physical secondary makes this one interesting. THE PICK: Comparing schedules is silly, Chaminade has played the who's who of Florida powerhouses: Deerfield, American Heritage Plantation, Booker T. and even Columbus in the KoC. University school does have wins over Glades Central and American Heritage Delray, but the rest of their schedule is either down this year or flat out not very good. I think University School competes well and maybe even has a lead late in the 3rd, but Chaminade is just flat out better right now. Chaminade 35 Uschool 24 Tampa Jesuit (9-1) at Tampa Catholic (7-2) One of the biggest catholic high school rivalries in the state is also one of the most lopsided. The rivalry is already personal, but this year it's probably even more personal as superstar Jesuit QB Kiael Kelly jumped from Tampa Catholic to Tampa Jesuit just before the season. Kelly's father, Kenny Kelly is a Tampa Catholic legend which caused the Tampa Bay sports community to do a double take. Jesuit comes into the game having already clinched a district championship. Tampa Catholic comes into the game 7-2 having secured a playoff spot already. With a win and some help (particularly a Mooney loss), it's possible the Crusaders could jump to the #2 seed for a first round bye. TC's fortunes changed after defeating Melbourne Central Catholic 41-0, they also scored a impressive win over Bishop Verot and Steinbrenner. THE PICK: Jesuit has won 18 in a row, many times they haven't been the more talented team but that will not be the case this Friday. Jesuit has commits to Miami, Iowa, Nebraska, Georgia Tech and a host of others. This is an extremely well coached and dangerous team that goes 70+ deep on their varsity roster. They're also battle tested having already played Tampa Jefferson, Osceola Kowboys and CCC. Tampa Catholic is talented as well as they have 3 very solid college ready running backs (Jalen Bussey, Caleb Tate, Andrew Ellis). TC uses a 2 QB system but the bottom line is this; this Jesuit team is one of the better Jesuit teams in the past 10-15 years because unlike the Malik Davis era, they finally have a legit major power 5 QB and the WR's to compliment him and that's before you factor in D-1 prospect Michael Pittman at RB. TC can slow one or two down, but not all of them.. Jesuit 38 Tampa Catholic 14 OTHER GAMES: Cardinal Mooney over Sarasota Booker by 7 Florida High over Arnold by 28 Clearwater Academy over Lakeland Christian by 35+ AHD over Everglades Prep by 35 Orlando First Academy over Villages Charter by 7 Ft. White over Parker by 21 Baldwin over Paxon by 35+ MCC over Ft. Pierce Central by 14 Calvary (C-Water) over Lake Highland Prep by 7 St. Pete Catholic over Hudson by 7 Westminster Christian over Palmer Trinity by 10 Cardinal Newman over West Boca by 21 NOTES: I'll provide a regular season wrap-up next week. I've also been collecting questions that I'll post this week with some message board fodder.

Personally, I wouldn't touch 1a-4a. I'm in favor of 6 teams making the playoffs from each region if it means a team like Booker T. isn't left out. What I'm against is giving teams that lose to cat 1 teams 35 points for a loss. I think a good balance would be one or the other, not both.

That's a LOT of really good games! Saving some of the classic match-ups for last!

Okay! Time to hold myself accountable. I picked CCC over Mooney 38-14 and was in the ballpark. Final was CCC 55-20. I didn't expect CCC's offense to be so prolific in this game with the key pieces of their offense out. Up 55-14 late in the 4th, Mooney put up a TD to give them 20, otherwise- I would have gotten Mooney's point total on the dot. I picked Benjamin over King's on a late fumble, but it was King's going for 2 to win the game that got them the W 21-20 over Benjamin. This one was always going to go either way. Congrats to both teams on excellent seasons! Let's look at the rest: Berkeley Prep over Sickles by 10- I got this one very wrong. Sickles won 20-9 and while Berkeley Prep QB Josh Youngblood had a great game running, the Berkeley offense didn't produce much else. Orlando First Academy over Lake Highland Prep by 28- Bingo. Calvary Christian (C-Water) over IMG White by 42- This was my worst pick of the night. IMG White won 41-40 in double OT. I don't believe Calvary had any injuries. I have no clue why or how Calvary lost this one- but for all the Calvary fans who E-mail me about Calvary not being ranked in any polls let this result be a reminder of how far Calvary still has to go. Chaminade-Madonna over Flanagan by 50+ - Right on the money! Chaminade won 51-0. Expect Chaminade to be highlighted quite a bit this week by myself and the national media as they take on Uschool. North Marion over Ocala Trinity by 21- OTC started off the season strong, but faded in the 2nd half of the season. Still, there's a good foundation to build on going forward. The final score was lopsided so this one was right. St. Pete Catholic over Gulf by 14- Ha! My Barons have a chance to finish 6-4. We haven't played a tough schedule, but come on- we need to get some wins as they come in. Bingo on the score. Pensacola Catholic over Pensacola Pace by 7- Opps! These teams don't play until NEXT Friday. Lakeland Christian over Avon Park by 14- I expected this to be competitive, but LCS scored early and often en route to a 40-0 win over Avon Park. University School over Melbourne Central Catholic by 42. Uschool won 58-0. MCC had taken some lumps this year, but they should finish 6-4 which is a respectable season considering the level of competition. AH-D over Key West by 21- AHD won 20-0. Bingo. Good to see the Stallions get back in the W column. Fort White over Newberry by 35+ - Ft. White won by 37. Glades Central over Cardinal Newman by 2- I picked the right winner, but Glades ended up winning by 40 or thereabout. Overall, not a bunch of awful picks outside of Calvary/IMG White and Berkeley/Sickles.

Dillard, I get what you're saying, and understand it in the big schools; however, the smaller schools in 1-4A have to create their own 10 game schedule. Booker T. is a known name, meaning, sisters of the poor aren't going to play them. They're forced into playing Chaminade-Madonna, Central, Carol City, Southridge etc. I think you have to cut these guys some slack with their record. The bigger schools 5-8a I tend to feel a bit more empathy for since they get placed into districts. Some districts are tougher than others. I think the FHSAA was trying to avoid those super-districts where there is a 6 team district and 3 of the teams are elite superpowers but only 2 make the playoffs so they end up beating each other up and then in the sister district a 5-5 team playing joe nobody is a champion. The question becomes, what's the best system to use? There probably isn't one everybody will agree on, but as Josh says the point system is here to stay.

I have no clue how this works. I've heard 3 different responses all of which seem fishy. I believe there were 5 ejections in total, all on CCC. The best explanation I heard was that the players would be suspended for this week since they all received 2 unsportsmanlike penalties; however, since no blows were thrown and none of the players got into an officials face the suspension would only be for this week. Another individual seemed fairly confident they would be out for 6 weeks minimum due to the ejection, but I seem to recall that only being accurate if there was a brawl. I don't think we live in times where any ejection results in an automatic 6 week ejection, it probably has to be a specific set of circumstances. Overall, I just don't know enough about the situation and rule interpretation.

It's no secret that Cardinal Mooney has been game planning CCC for the last 3 weeks. I communicated with a few sports writers in the Bradenton area that are convinced that Cardinal Mooney has an excellent game plan to beat CCC on Friday. More to the point, a Mooney coach sent me a DM after I made my 38-14 pick in another thread yesterday that this has been, by far, their best week of practice all year with players volunteering to stay an extra hour to get additional film study in over and above their already length film study sessions. You can listen to On the Grid later today and they'll likely say as much. CCC is nowhere near full strength and is in desperate need of a bye week, in addition, they had multiple ejections last week against Jesuit. I don't want to feed into the CCC complex that they're underdogs against everybody they play because that's hogwash, but with the CCC injuries, ejections and factoring in a likely monsoon I can understand why Cardinal Mooney has become a trendy upset pick in the past 24 hours. I think Hwy17 does a great job with his poll and appreciate anybody who takes on that challenge and posts it in public. It's good message board fodder! As for the game, I think it has the makings to be one of the great games of the weekend if not the season.

Class 3A, Week 10 rankings: #1) Chaminade-Madonna: Chaminade scored a quality win over a good, but not great Doral Academy team 47-17. In the game Chaminade had multiple TD's called back and quite honestly could have won 80-7. As mentioned last week, the Lions have hit their stride at this point in the season and it's hard seeing anybody slow them down right now. I kept them ranked #1 this week due to the early season win over Muscle Shoals. The Trojans have gone on to great success and should finish their season in Alabama 8-2. Also, I'm giving a tip of the hat to their win over Booker T who would then go on to compete for 3 quarters against Carol City. As far as week 10 is concerned, I see another 70-0 type win over hapless Flanagan before setting up a huge week 11 game over the current #1 team in Class 4A, University School. #2) Clearwater Central Catholic: Many computer polls had Tampa Jesuit as a top 15 team in the state (highest being Pinkos who had them at #11). Many felt that if CCC was going to pull off the upset it would need to be a high scoring, overtime type game where maybe Jesuit didn't bring their A game. Remarkably, CCC gave up only 2 field goals in the win and shut down the vaunted Jesuit rushing attack. I'm personally impressed they did this without the services of 4 starters, including superstar Jerzhan Newton. While I believe this is the best individual win any 3A team has scored this year, I believe Chaminades body of work up to this point is slightly better than CCC's, even with 2 losses. Now, if the Marauders win on Friday against undefeated Cardinal Mooney that could change. #3) Sarasota Cardinal Mooney: When it comes to Florida High School football coaches in Florida, few are more respected than Cardinal Mooney coach Paul Maechtle who has racked up 290 victories and 2 state championships in his career. He inherited a highly talented team at Mooney that was ready to make a deep run in the playoffs. RB Trayvon Hall has had a special season in 2018 continually running past defenders. Mooney has put together a series of quality wins, but they haven't earned that signature win. That could come this week when the CCC Marauders arrive in town boasting a 22 game regular season winning streak. #4) Benjamin School: Because the Buccaneers play in the same region as Chaminade- it's easy to overlook the quality of play coming out of Benjamin. Benjamin has won 15 of their last 18 regular season games, including being undefeated so far in 2018. Kaiir Elam is having a phenominal season with 650 all purpose yards and 4 TD's, but it's the Buccaneer rushing attack that has really come to the attention of opposing defenses. Benjamin has 4 running backs that have run for at least 200 yards this season, 3 of which have rushed for at least 300 yards. The Buccaneers are playing high quality football and look to finish the season undefeated against rival and also high performing King's Academy. #5) Tampa Berkeley Prep: There were a lot of teams considered for this #5 spot as there's a proverbial jammed highway here, but it was determined to give the spot to Berkeley Prep. Berkeley has 2 losses, but they were early season losses to two undefeated teams that are currently in the top 75 of Maxprep and other polls. Berkeley has also scored quality wins over Tampa Catholic, Lakeland Christian and Mitchell. This weeks comes a defensive challenge from a good 6-3 Tampa Sickles quad to finish the season. If you haven't seen Berkeley Prep QB Joshua Youngblood play, you owe yourself to check out his Hudl highlights. ROUNDING OUT THE TOP 10 #6) Tampa Catholic: Crusaders continue to impress after a strong 15-3 win over #4 state ranked team Bishop Verot. The hype has already started for 11/2 when Tampa Catholic hosts Jesuit. #7) Florida High School: The Seminoles fought hard, but eventually dropped the game against a high quality Wakulla team. It doesn't get easier this week with Godby on tap. #9) American Heritge Delray- The Stallions had a great opening to their season, but have stumbled in previous weeks. Still, at 5-3 AH-D can finish the season strong against Key West and Everglades Pre. #10) Baldwin: The Indians were upset last week against Santa Fe, but Florida High lost as well- thus, if the Indians can win out they stand a good chance to grabbing the #1 seed in the region if Florida High stumbles against Godby. GAMES OF THE WEEK: Clearwater Central Catholic (9-0) at Cardinal Mooney (8-0) This game is likely a preview of a regional finals match in mid November as both teams are expected to finish #1 and #2 in the region. THE PICK: Cardinal Mooney has had a strong season and will be a formidable foe. I have no doubt that Mooney will make things interesting for a half, but CCC is playing for a 2nd consecutive undefeated season and more importantly, home field advantage throughout the playoffs. CCC 38, Mooney 14 King's Academy vs Benjamin North Palm Beach meets West Palm Beach in this is a very interesting Class 3A Region 2 vs Region 3 match. King's Academy comes in with 1 loss, Benjamin is undefeated. THE PICK: These are two really good teams that I can see having success in the playoffs. I expect both teams to finish the season at category 1 teams, so there's lots of points on the board. I don't think either team has played a super challenging schedule, but they've won the games they should. I expect a close contest, but the Bucs seal it with a late fumble. Benjamin 35, King's 28 OTHER GAMES Baldwin over West Nasseau by 3. (West Nasseau plays Baldwin on Monday, 10/29- it will be their 2nd game in 3 days). Berkeley Prep over Sickles by 10 Orlando First Academy over Lake Highland Prep by 28 Calvary Christian (C-Water) over IMG White by 42 Chaminade-Madonna over Flanagan by 50+ North Marion over Ocala Trinity by 21 St. Pete Catholic over Gulf by 14 Pensacola Catholic over Pensacola Pace by 7 Lakeland Christian over Avon Park by 14 University School over Melbourne Central Catholic by 42 AH-D over Key West by 21 Fort White over Newberry by 35+ Glades Central over Cardinal Newman by 20

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.

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.

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.

So, I got a lot right, some really wrong last week in my personal pickem's for 3a. Let's see what happened.. Berkeley Prep over IMG White by 35 - Nailed this one. Cardinal Mooney over Avon Park by 3- Got this one. Chaminade-Madonna over Doral Academy by 35 - Bingo. American Heritage Delray over Glades Central by 10 - I was really wrong here. What's happened to AHD? 3 losses in a row? Granted all 3 losses were to very good teams, but this one surprised me. King's Academy over Key West by 7- Right, but the spread was off. Benjamin over St. Andrews by 35+ - Bingo. Ft. White over Dixie by 3- Good win by Ft. White! I had them as a 3 point favorite, but they ended up winning by a lot more!! Ocala Trinity over Providence School by 17- Right on! Lakeland Christian over Lake Highland by 10- Correct, but the spread was wrong 1st Academy over West Park Prep by 35+ - Bingo. In my top 2 games of the week, I nailed the Tampa Catholic game. I had TC as a 7 point favorite, but they ended up winning by 13. Tampa Catholic is really coming on strong to close the season. Unless they win out, they probably aren't in contention for a first round bye. Okay, now for the pink elephant in the room. I picked Tampa Jesuit over CCC 35-7. CCC would win 14-6. How could I get this one totally wrong? Tampa Jesuit was selected due to a few factors 1) CCC was really banged up going into the game. I saw on twitter they only dressed 21 varsity players. Tampa Jesuit (according to their announcer via live stream) dressed 77 varsity players. 2) That Jesuit win over Kissimmee Osceola really impacted the spread and the decision. Keep in mind, Osceola had previously beat Viera, Lake Gibson and Winter Haven. Jesuit held them to 7 points. 3) Jesuit is more talented and playing at home. Looking at the rosters, CCC is talented for sure, but Jesuit has a who's who of college prospects. They also have more linemen than CCC had players total. In the end CCC picked up a signature win and proved the computer rankings that have them as a top 30 team right. For what it's worth, I've been told they will he healthy for the playoffs including Johnny Newton returning. Okay, that's all I've got. Look for my updated 3A rankings later this week!

Thanks Darter! I happen to think that Orlando First Academy is a really good team and should make the state final 4. I also don't think they're to far behind Florida High for a birth in Orlando. The issue is, I don't see that signature win that bumps them up the rankings.