State Champs Prediction

[WindsorCT]

I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes here with State Champions predictions as I know there are weekly pick ems. Let me know if I’ve overstepped here. 
 

1A- Chaminade beats CCC

2A- Cocoa beats Booker T

3A- Raines beats Northwestern

4A- American Heritage beats Jones

5A- Lakeland beats Atlantic (Atlantic upsets STA)

6A- Armwood beats Southridge 

7A- Palmetto beats Venice 

[CoachGraham]

I will also give it a shot

 

1RB- Baker beats PSJ

1R- Madison beats Hawthorne

1A- Chaminade beats CCC

2A- Cocoa beats Cardinal Mooney

3A- Northwestern beats Raines

4A- American Heritage beats Saint Augustine

5A- STA beats Lakeland

6A- Armwood beats South Ridge

7A- Venice beats Columbus

 

Pretty chalk but that's just how I see it playing out. The one I don't feel super confident about is 6A. I think if Buchholz wins a couple they could get hot and make a run....almost beat Lakeland last year. I was at that game, and I think they might've been the better team that night but the breaks just didn't go their way. 

[DarterBlue2]

Here's my take:

1R Madison beats Hawthorne

1A Chaminade beats whichever team they face. Had TFA not been disqualified, I would have given them a puncher's chance.

2A Cocoa beats Cardinal Mooney

3A Northwestern beats Raines

4A Jones beats American Heritage and wins its first state title

5A Edgewater beats STA to win it's first state title

6A Buchholz beats Monarch

7A Venice beats Lake Mary in a very entertaining, very high scoring game

 

[WindsorCT]

17 minutes ago, CoachGraham said:

I will also give it a shot

 

 

1RB- Baker beats PSJ

 

1R- Madison beats Hawthorne

1A- Chaminade beats CCC

2A- Cocoa beats Cardinal Mooney

3A- Northwestern beats Raines

4A- American Heritage beats Saint Augustine

5A- STA beats Lakeland

6A- Armwood beats South Ridge

7A- Venice beats Columbus

 

Pretty chalk but that's just how I see it playing out. The one I don't feel super confident about is 6A. I think if Buchholz wins a couple they could get hot and make a run....almost beat Lakeland last year. I was at that game, and I think they might've been the better team that night but the breaks just didn't go their way. 

Mine is pretty chalk too. I look at these brackets and think what a shame we have so many classes. Armwood, Lakeland, STA, Jones etc could all be in the same class if they just cut one classification. Oh well…

[WindsorCT]

3 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Here's my take:

1R Madison beats Hawthorne

1A Chaminade beats whichever team they face. Had TFA not been disqualified, I would have given them a puncher's chance.

2A Cocoa beats Cardinal Mooney

3A Northwestern beats Raines

4A Jones beats American Heritage and wins its first state title

5A Edgewater beats STA to win it's first state title

6A Buchholz beats Monarch

7A Venice beats Lake Mary in a very entertaining, very high scoring game

 

Bucholtz beating Lakeland….I like it! I’ve got STA as the ones getting upset in 5A.

 

so far, between the three entrees, we’ve got three different winners in 5A

[DarterBlue2]

22 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Bucholtz beating Lakeland….I like it! I’ve got STA as the ones getting upset in 5A.

 

so far, between the three entrees, we’ve got three different winners in 5A

5A is fairly wide open, as is 6A. Anyone of a number of teams could win either division. I am slightly surprised no one but me had Lake Mary in the 7A final. They gave Lakeland all it could handle and could easily have won that game which ended when Lakeland stopped their 2 point conversion attempt in overtime. 

[WindsorCT]

8 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

5A is fairly wide open, as is 6A. Anyone of a number of teams could win either division. I am slightly surprised no one but me had Lake Mary in the 7A final. They gave Lakeland all it could handle and could easily have won that game which ended when Lakeland stopped their 2 point conversion attempt in overtime. 

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the bracket sets up as Venice-Lake Mary in the semis and Venice would host. That’s a tough ask for Lake Mary to go score for score and beat Venice away.

[CoachGraham]

40 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Bucholtz beating Lakeland….I like it! I’ve got STA as the ones getting upset in 5A.

 

so far, between the three entrees, we’ve got three different winners in 5A

Buchholz could very well do it. They're not as star-studded as they were a year ago, but they are a good overall team. 

[CoachGraham]

6 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the bracket sets up as Venice-Lake Mary in the semis and Venice would host. That’s a tough ask for Lake Mary to go score for score and beat Venice away.

I believe the semis get reseeded based on the rankings. 

[DarterBlue2]

18 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the bracket sets up as Venice-Lake Mary in the semis and Venice would host. That’s a tough ask for Lake Mary to go score for score and beat Venice away.

It only looks that way. As someone else explained in another thread, the final 4 will be determined based on each team's ranking at the end of the regular season. Lake Mary, I believe, is the number 2 ranked team in 7A. Therefore, they will likely get Palmetto or Columbus or Dp./Vero/PBC in their semifinal while Venice will get one of those teams, too, in it's semifinal.

This will likely set up a Venice vs Lake Mary final which should be a great game. 

[Perspective]

9 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

This will likely set up a Venice vs Lake Mary final which should be a great game. 

I'll go ahead and peg the over-under for this game at around 140.    And I'll take the over. 

[Perspective]

25 minutes ago, CoachGraham said:

Buchholz could very well do it. They're not as star-studded as they were a year ago, but they are a good overall team. 

Did Buchholz have any significant early-to-mid season injuries?   It seemed like they let a couple of potential wins slip away in the first half of the season and I was just wondering if a stud player or two was out hurt. 

[WindsorCT]

9 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

It only looks that way. As someone else explained in another thread, the final 4 will be determined based on each team's ranking at the end of the regular season. Lake Mary, I believe, is the number 2 ranked team in 7A. Therefore, they will likely get Palmetto or Columbus or Dp./Vero/PBC in their semifinal while Venice will get one of those teams, too, in it's semifinal.

This will likely set up a Venice vs Lake Mary final which should be a great game. 

Good to know. I’ll stick with my winners but I guess that changes the runner up. Oh well. So essentially you could have a team from Panhandle or Jax, travel to Miami for a semi, then go back to school, then travel back down to Miami for the state finals. That’s wild. 

[CoachGraham]

10 minutes ago, Perspective said:

Did Buchholz have any significant early-to-mid season injuries?   It seemed like they let a couple of potential wins slip away in the first half of the season and I was just wondering if a stud player or two was out hurt. 

Not to my knowledge. I think they were just coping with getting used to not having the two studs they had last year to lean on. They're hitting their stride now. 

[DarterBlue2]

52 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Good to know. I’ll stick with my winners but I guess that changes the runner up. Oh well. So essentially you could have a team from Panhandle or Jax, travel to Miami for a semi, then go back to school, then travel back down to Miami for the state finals. That’s wild. 

That's correct.

[Longtime Observer]

9 hours ago, CoachGraham said:

Buchholz could very well do it. They're not as star-studded as they were a year ago, but they are a good overall team. Buchholz 

It is impossible for Buchholz to beat Lakeland this season. Not a homer take: they are in different classes.

I agree with Darter that Edgewater may well beat Lakeland. Lakeland's offense has mostly looked average, due to a combination of subpar OL play, and poor play-calling. (The caveat is the play-calling may have been deliberately poor to confuse future opponents.)  Lakeland's players are teenagers like everyone else's players, which means they are prone to ignorant or immature assumptions about their opponents. They took Lake Mary lightly, didn't prepare well, and deserved to lose. They can repeat that vs. Edgewater. In fact, due to geographic bias, I think many players may assume it'll be Tampa Bay Tech that they face. I think that is wrong, they'll host Edgewater, and they may be silly enough to overlook them. 

[Jullian]

Rural: Hawthorne def MC

1a: Chaminade def Cardinal Newman 

2a: Cardinal Mooney def Gadsen cty 

3a: NW def Raines

4a: AHP def Jones

5a: Lakeland def Niceville 

6a: Armwood def Nease

7a: Venice def Lake Mary. 

[WindsorCT]

22 hours ago, Longtime Observer said:

It is impossible for Buchholz to beat Lakeland this season. Not a homer take: they are in different classes.

I agree with Darter that Edgewater may well beat Lakeland. Lakeland's offense has mostly looked average, due to a combination of subpar OL play, and poor play-calling. (The caveat is the play-calling may have been deliberately poor to confuse future opponents.)  Lakeland's players are teenagers like everyone else's players, which means they are prone to ignorant or immature assumptions about their opponents. They took Lake Mary lightly, didn't prepare well, and deserved to lose. They can repeat that vs. Edgewater. In fact, due to geographic bias, I think many players may assume it'll be Tampa Bay Tech that they face. I think that is wrong, they'll host Edgewater, and they may be silly enough to overlook them. 

Not a slight at all for Lakeland (as I have them winning 5A) they definitely aren’t as good as they were last season. However I have them winning states as I just think this a down year for a lot of the  heavy hitters in 5A. Edgewater or TBT might be their toughest opponent outside of the state championship game. Mosley or Niceville could give them problems if they host but I just don’t see much from Quadrent 1 or 2 outside of the two teams I mentioned. Which Lakeland will only play one. 
 

I don’t think Lakeland makes the finals if they are in 6A. Having said that, they are Lakeland. Wouldn’t surprise me the least if they win every game by 14-20+ pts…..including the state title game

[Longtime Observer]

54 minutes ago, WindsorCT said:

Not a slight at all for Lakeland (as I have them winning 5A) they definitely aren’t as good as they were last season. However I have them winning states as I just think this a down year for a lot of the  heavy hitters in 5A. Edgewater or TBT might be their toughest opponent outside of the state championship game. Mosley or Niceville could give them problems if they host but I just don’t see much from Quadrent 1 or 2 outside of the two teams I mentioned. Which Lakeland will only play one. 
 

I don’t think Lakeland makes the finals if they are in 6A. Having said that, they are Lakeland. Wouldn’t surprise me the least if they win every game by 14-20+ pts…..including the state title game

I think you're confusing the 2023 and 2022 teams. The 2022 team went 14-0 and won state. The 2023 team dropped three games and definitely wasn't as good as in 2022. The 2024 team may or may not be as good as the 2022 team, but it is significantly better than 2023. There is no question about this among those who follow the program closely. Now, if you limit the discussion to strictly the offensive side of the ball, I'll give you that the 2024 team is possibly the weakest of the three. But, the team as a whole is considerably better than last season.

[WindsorCT]

50 minutes ago, Longtime Observer said:

I think you're confusing the 2023 and 2022 teams. The 2022 team went 14-0 and won state. The 2023 team dropped three games and definitely wasn't as good as in 2022. The 2024 team may or may not be as good as the 2022 team, but it is significantly better than 2023. There is no question about this among those who follow the program closely. Now, if you limit the discussion to strictly the offensive side of the ball, I'll give you that the 2024 team is possibly the weakest of the three. But, the team as a whole is considerably better than last season.

Geez…you’re right. 2022 was Castles last season. I went straight to that team. Skipped right over last season. Idk what I was thinking. 

[cribboy305]

So yall as a congregation just saying eff norland????? 

[Jullian]

11 hours ago, cribboy305 said: