Ray Icaza

That is a valid point regarding 7A teams, but Lake Mary and Seminole can make a strong case to come out of R1 while West Orange may be in the driver's seat in R2 after a convincing win over Apopka last night. Meanwhile, Dr. Phillips seems to be the clear favorite in R3 at this stage in the game but you may have a team from the West Palm area that comprises alot of that region that may be a strong challenger. If so, who?

Jones vs Auburndale won't be a game, whereas Columbus vs South Dade should be. Don' know about the other 2 teams if your other considerations are a wash.

At this stage, Armwood is definitely the betting favorite for 6A-R2 as they have looked very strong all year.

More data, better forecasting and I agree that Toho has slipped the last couple of games with Poinciana remaining steady. Since you brought up the roster situation, it is sad to not have more participation. The same argument can be made for OHS with barely cracking 40 on their roster against a much more brutal schedule which lends to key injuries they can little afford. Besides the Swint situation, the OL has been hit the hardest injury wise which has affected our ability to run the ball as effectively as we would like. We do have geniuses on here that refer to "BALL CONTROL" as bleeding the clock, when you play to your strength to win and it has nothing to do with being "OUTMANNED"! Here is a direct quote from HC Rodney Wells to an Orlando Sentinel sports reporter after DP defeated LM this past week 26-21. “The defense stepped up. To hold these guys to 21 points is damn near impossible,” Wells said. “I also give credit to the offense, to keep them off the field and hold some drives, taking six, seven minutes off the clock, so they didn’t have a lot of possessions.”

You could be right, though seems funny he could have laid it out like you did without invoking Osceola since many teams primarily run the ball (for ball control). Who knows, as you seem to consider that a coincidence where I not so much.

Got to hand it to you, that is a genius idea. But as usual, you seem to neglect the most important aspect to this "APPROACH". You gotta be ABLE to run the ball. In the four games prior to Lakeland, they have averaged only 117 YPG with a pretty even 25 carries per game. They gained over half their total yards for the year against an incompetent team and managed a whopping 20 total yards against a weakened Lake Minneola team for the entire game, despite winning that game. That from a Shorttime Observer.

Not here to quibble about whether we are ranked high enough or not, simply and observation when considering either the benefit of strength of schedule (SOS) or benefit of the margin of victory (MOV) when adjusting the ranking from a previous week. Two weeks ago, we beat a St. Cloud Bulldog team ranked in the middle (#286) of all schools by 50 (MOV) at their place and they rewarded us by dropping us several points in the rankings. Then this week, we lost to a TOP 20 team Jones (SOS) in a tight game that went to OT and could have gone the other way by dropping us another 11 spots. Clearly makes perfect sense.

He was hardly used late in the game as he obviously hurt his shoulder again. You rightfully know his importance to our offense as this same argument holds true for the Lake Mary game. We are looking at a portion of our schedule for the next few weeks where we can let him heal.

That hunch doesn't seem to apply evenly across the board, so must be something else.

Only when at home, which is to say most games.

You are right, Tanner Ingle was a tremendous player and he made the play of the game to come back and win. We were undefeated that year (actually in 2017) and took the lead with time running out in the 4th quarter (13-10). Our kicker could not drive it into the endzone, so we kicked into the left corner trying to pin him in on the ensuing kickoff and though it looked like we had him trapped he managed to escape for a huge return to set up the winning TD in the closing seconds (Final 17-13). I was there and it was another heartbreaker but a tremendous game by two excellent defensive teams.

DP has been under the radar as they may not be an offensive juggernaut but they have an excellent defense.

For anyone interested, this is our local sports reporter analysis of the game last night. Just click on the link below. Osceola falls to power Jones, 34-28 in OT | Osceola News Gazette (aroundosceola.com)

As I pointed out to you last night, we were missing a couple starters in the OL so we were a bit thin there which started to show a bit in the second half as Jones improved their ability to stop the run inside the tackles. We look forward to getting back our big 6'7" 300 lbs. junior Marcus Ferrer, which some think is the best of the group in the run game. Just need to stay healthy as losing several transfers this year certainly affects our depth.

Thanks for your view but hate repeating myself when it comes to rankings. We don't worry about them and usually by the 4th game you can start forming opinions though it takes a couple more weeks for the accuracy to improve. We certainly aren't going anywhere if we can stay healthy as we are currently pretty thin on the OL. Played without a couple starters last night who we should get back in a few more weeks and have them ready to go come playoff time.

Not many picked us to win and understandably so. I was convinced we would win this one as I think the entire team did, so feel bad for you and the few that had faith in our team to not deliver the "UPSET". Does appear that Taevion re-injured that shoulder late in the 4th quarter as he was used judiciously throughout the entire game; maybe 10 carries for about 100 yards. He is a difference maker for us and we probably will hold him out the next couple of weeks, as we can probably secure victories without him in those next couple of games.

You saw what I saw Darter, that kid played lights out and it didn't hurt to have 3 or 4 D1 type receivers to pitch it to. Thanks for coming down and visiting again. Will probably see you in Apopka on 10/18.

Was a great game as the kids played their hearts out so disappointing not to secure the win. I think Jones managed maybe 3 yards on the ground in the first half, before getting a 20 yard run against a prevent defense with 3 seconds remaining in the half. I don't think they attempted a run the entire 2nd half, although they punched in the winning score from 2 yards out in overtime out of a wildcat set. Their QB passed for 400 yards, credit their coaches as they seemed prepared in their spread set in the eventuality that they couldn't move the ball on the ground. Tied 28-28 late in the 4th quarter with 3-4 minutes left in the game they stopped us at midfield on a 4th down attempt by inches. Their following possession went nowhere and they were forced to punt, ball still about midfield. We block the punt, drive down to the 15 yard line and with 3rd and 2 with 30 seconds remaining we decide to run it rather than kicking a sure FG for a 3 point lead. We failed to get the first down and with time running out the team panicked and quickly spiked the ball on 4th down as we were out of timeouts. I know our HC is kicking himself for not winning it in regulation. Live and Learn.

Hats off to the Jones Tigers for a gutty performance overcoming multiple major penalties throughout the game to finally come back and tie it to force overtime. Props to their coaching staff as they realized early on that running attack that has worked for them all season long was useless against our defensive front and quickly abandoned ANY attempt to run and went strictly to a passing attack. Their QB was the difference maker as he managed to avoid the pressure despite getting sacked a few times and extended plays with his legs that led to receivers getting open when he would break contain for chunk plays all night. Based on this performance, his pocket presence, escape ability, ability to find secondary receivers and pinpoint accuracy I think I take him over Grubbs at LM. They definitely deserve their ranking and these again are the games where we had opportunities to win and managed to find a way to lose. Hope this game makes us better. GO KOWBOYS!!

Another "WEAK SAUCE" district?? Or just my imagination.

Too many are, including the one we play in. I agree with those of you advocating for larger districts for years as that would fix some of the problems we currently endure.

Wow, didn't realize expressing an opinion on this site was that dangerous. Might be a good idea to comment under different "Handle/Nickname" every few months to evade detection.

Promoting OHS is not my responsibility either, but promoting any team is giving an opinion which you seem to be fine doing. Just not taking ownership of that but acting like the tough guy hiding in the basement. Some of your opinions I agree with and others I do not but respect your right to express them, OPENLY!

As an outsider, that sounds like an oxymoron as my reason for participating on this forum is to "Be Involved and Public". Otherwise, who is promoting a team from Kissimmee on this forum? No one. Obviously, I have no reason to hide my identity either.