6A Region 2 Game Previews

[OldSchoolLion]

This region features 4 teams from District 5.  None of these teams have ever met in the playoffs.  We could see a lot of points scored, since defense is not the strong suit of some of the competitors.  

 

6A-R2

 

#8Sebring(8-2) @ #1Vanguard(10-0)  These two teams have never met in the playoffs and Sebring will have a long ride to Ocala.  Sebring was knocked out in the first round by Armwood last year.  They are looking for their first playoff win since 1999. Their offense has been prolific, averaging 40 points per game.  Their defense has been giving up an average of 17 per game.  They lost their two biggest tests against Lake Wales and Hardee, the latter in OT.  Vanguard's offense is equally as potent, averaging 41 points per game while allowing 14.  The KNights collected wins over North Marion, Gainesville, Buchholz and Oakleaf.  The game versus Oakleaf, the last of the season, was a shootout 46-34.  Their defense will need to do much better than that to win a state title or even a region title. The Knights have lost in the region title game each of the past two years.  They last won a region title back in 1994, the only region title in school history.  So, they should be hungry. 

 

#7South Lake(6-4) @ #2Armwood(9-1) These two teams have never met in the playoffs.  Armwood has a great history in the playoffs, with numerous appearances in title games, including last year's title game.  The Hawks have won their last 36 playoff games at home and are 37-2 historically.  No team is tougher to beat at home in the playoffs.  Armwood has impressive wins over Plant and Plant City.  Their lone loss was to Tampa Bay Tech in the first game of the season.  Since they have won 9 straight.  Armwood's defense is always tough, and has 3 shutouts this year.  South Lake made a big turnaround after finishing 1-9 last season.  They have averaged 39 points per game, but it is doubtful they will do that versus the Hawks.  The Eagles' porous defense has been giving up 36 points per game on average, including 30+ points in 7 of their games. They last appeared in 2015 and their only playoff win ever was in 2000.

 

#6Lake Weir(7-3) @ #3Mitchell(8-2) These two teams have never met in the playoffs.  Mitchell has a 2-7 record in the playoffs and was knocked out in the second round each of the past 2 years, each time by Vanguard.  Mitchell has played a rather weak schedule and their stats are a bit deceiving because of it.  They  lost two of their biggest tests against Berkeley Prep and Clearwater, giving up big points in each.  Lake Weir's defense has given up 20 points in 6 of its games and opponents have been scoring an average of 26 points against them.  In their 3 losses to Gainesville, Eastside and Vanguard, they gave up 45+ points in each.  Lake Weir's 7 wins came against rather weak competition.  The Hurricanes have only appeared in 2 playoff games in their history, the last time in 2009.  They lost both.  This one could be a shootout.

 

#5Gainesville(7-3) @ #4Lake Wales(9-1) These two teams have never met in the playoffs.  Lake Wales last appeared in the playoffs in 2014 and won their last playoff in came in 2013.  Playing a rather weak schedule, they averaged 36 points per game and allowed 18 points per game.  They had an impressive win over Sebring.  Their lone loss came in a shootout versus Treasure Coast.  Vanguard knocked the Hurricanes out of the playoffs in the first round last year.  Gainesville last won a playoff game in 2015.  They made an appearance in the 6A title game in 2012.  Their lost losses to Columbia, Vanguard and Columbia, all by 20 or more points.  They had an OT win over North Marion.  Their offense averaged 38 points per game, their defense allowed 21.  

 

*Lake Weir and South Lake were benefactors of the new points system.  

 

[Proseteye]

The Vanguard defense will have to slow down or shutdown the Sebring QB DJ Williams. He is a do it all QB with good passing stats and he is also the leading rusher on the team. Seems as though most of his passing attempts are to WR Norris Taylor who has almost all of the team's receiving yards. So it's basically a two man operation. I feel that the Knight's D will slow him down tonight and get the win. 

Lake Weir is a lot better team than their stats. They have a high powered passing attack. Jr QB Simpkins has 2,200 yards passing and one of their WR's Sr Dillard has nearly 1,200 receiving yards although they have 3 other good WR's. Simpkins also does a lot on the ground with 640 yards and 10 TD's. They have a lot of Seniors on their defense so this is as good as they are going to get. Mitchell has proved in the past that they are one tough team to beat. Like Mike Tyson they just keep hitting you until you fall down. Lake Weir is going to have their hands full especially on Mitchell's field.

[LakelandGator]

18 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

 

#5Gainesville(7-3) @ #4Lake Wales(9-1) These two teams have never met in the playoffs.  Lake Wales last appeared in the playoffs in 2014 and their last playoff in came in 2013.  Playing a rather weak schedule, they averaged 36 points per game and allowed 18 points per game.  They had an impressive win over Sebring.  Their lone loss came in a shootout versus Treasure Coast. 

 

LWales is a 5A school playing up!

Nothing weak about playing 7A WHaven(road), LGibson(road), Sebring, Treasure Coast,  8A Spruce Creek(road)

And the District title rewarded them with a very good Gville squad. That's one of the best 2 or 3 round 1 playoff games statewide tonight.

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

[LakelandGator]

LWales 25-14 over Gainesville after being down 14-8 at the half

Total domination in the 2nd half, the final score wasn't really that close to be honest.

Pinkos and these "experts" had LW a 14pt underdog tonight, and if I'm not mistaken they said the same for the LW/Sebring game last month.

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

[Proseteye]

On 11/10/2018 at 1:34 AM, LakelandGator said:

LWales 25-14 over Gainesville after being down 14-8 at the half

Total domination in the 2nd half, the final score wasn't really that close to be honest.

Pinkos and these "experts" had LW a 14pt underdog tonight, and if I'm not mistaken they said the same for the LW/Sebring game last month.

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

 Can you advise how you see next Friday's game against Vanguard playing out? QB Garnett and RB Richardson seem to be the two big guns on LW's roster.They both have very good stats.  I watched a video of the LW/Spruce Creek game and, to tell you the truth, I was more impressed with SC than with LW. Of course, watching a video is not the same as being in the stands. Would like your opinion on LW and if and why you think they will win.

[badbird]

On 11/9/2018 at 12:31 PM, LakelandGator said:

LWales is a 5A school playing up!

Nothing weak about playing 7A WHaven(road), LGibson(road), Sebring, Treasure Coast,  8A Spruce Creek(road)

And the District title rewarded them with a very good Gville squad. That's one of the best 2 or 3 round 1 playoff games statewide tonight.

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

According to laz only 6 teams in 6A had an easier schedule than Lake Wales.  

 

Overall record of teams they beat was 27-62.  That is a weak schedule.

 

With that said at this point it doesn't really matter what their schedule was.  Good luck vs Vanguard.  

[181pl]

Armwood comes through this cotton soft region w/o a doubt.

[DisabledAccount]

4 minutes ago, 181pl said:

Armwood comes through this cotton soft region w/o a doubt.

Armwood hasn't looked very dominate this year and i would think vanguard is at least on par with Chamberlain who Armwood barley escaped 

 

Not to mention Booster Stadium a tough place to play so I can't see Armwood going by that game easily

[181pl]

no. playoffs different. 

[DisabledAccount]

49 minutes ago, 181pl said:

no. playoffs different. 

Your going to make same mistake people made last year with STA 

[Proseteye]

First things first. Vanguard has to get by Lake Wales and Armwood has to get by Lake Weir. Lake Weir should not be slept on. They defeated a pretty tough Michell team by coming back with two scores in the 4th quarter. They also have one of the best passing games around. If I were Armwood I would not be making hotel reservations in Orlando just yet. Now, Armwood may blow them out. But, that is not a given. The game still has to be played.

[181pl]

Just going on history. Armwood has been to the finals like 10 times in the last 15 years.

[DisabledAccount]

1 hour ago, 181pl said:

Just going on history. Armwood has been to the finals like 10 times in the last 15 years.

They have also lacked serious competition for several of those years

 

Especially 2013-2015,  their road to Orlando was a cakewalk

 

 

[181pl]

10 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

They have also lacked serious competition for several of those years

 

Especially 2013-2015,  their road to Orlando was a cakewalk

 

 

like this year....

[DisabledAccount]

1 minute ago, 181pl said:

like this year....

Vanguard this year is easily better than any of the 3rd or 4th round competition Armwood faced in those 3 years

 

Like seriously,  Gainesville in 2015 would have gotten smoked by this Vanguard team

[LakelandGator]

He has Vanguard at 21 over LWales

I'll take that, who's betting?

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

[181pl]

Crazy talk right there. 21 points is a lot.

[181pl]

Lake Wales plays in Polk. Not Hernando, Citrus, Sebring, etc. The level of football is several floors higher in Polk than in the dead zone between Tampa and G-ville (with the exception of South Sumter, Trinity Catholic, North Marion,  Vanguard).

[Proseteye]

All I can report is what I observed last Friday. Sebring is a very good team, skilled, disciplined, and were definitely motivated to defeat Vanguard. They are equal to or better than any team that Vanguard had played during the regular season. They looked promising in the first quarter until Vanguard moved right down the field and scored. Although Sebring had their moments it was pretty much all Vanguard from then on. Vanguard is not some miracle team like Armwood or Carol City. They are just a bunch of pretty good players who happen to be extremely well coached. Their formations and plays are just better than most. HC Farmer knows his football and he insures that his players are able to execute every Friday.

[OldSchoolLion]

In the last game of the season last year, Vanguard beat Oakleaf 46-28.  It was tied 21-21 at half and the difference was a big 3rd quarter.Then they won a shootout with Mitchell in the second round(just like they did in second round of 2016 playoffs)  before losing to Armwood in the region final.  During the 2017 regular season, they needed 31 points to beat Gainesville.

This year Vanguard gave up 28 points to Gainesville.  Vanguard needed a fourth quarter spurt to beat Oakleaf 46-34 in the last game of the season.   It does not bode well that their defense gave up 21 points in one half to a 4-6 Oakleaf team in the last game of the season.  In that game they gave up 4 passing TD's including numerous big passing plays.  Likewise, they gave up substantial passing yards to Gainesville. 

Like this year, Vanguard's offense put up gaudy numbers the past 2 seasons and the team relied on them to win some shootouts.  And in those past two seasons, they eventually ran into teams they could not outscore,who held their offense to 17 points or less.  And that could happen again this year.  I don't see their offense running wild against some of the teams they will/could be facing soon.

 

 

 

 

How did Vanguard give up 

For what it's worth, my impressions

[Proseteye]

1 hour ago, OldSchoolLion said:

In the last game of the season last year, Vanguard beat Oakleaf 46-28.  It was tied 21-21 at half and the difference was a big 3rd quarter.Then they won a shootout with Mitchell in the second round(just like they did in second round of 2016 playoffs)  before losing to Armwood in the region final.  During the 2017 regular season, they needed 31 points to beat Gainesville.

This year Vanguard gave up 28 points to Gainesville.  Vanguard needed a fourth quarter spurt to beat Oakleaf 46-34 in the last game of the season.   It does not bode well that their defense gave up 21 points in one half to a 4-6 Oakleaf team in the last game of the season.  In that game they gave up 4 passing TD's including numerous big passing plays.  Likewise, they gave up substantial passing yards to Gainesville. 

Like this year, Vanguard's offense put up gaudy numbers the past 2 seasons and the team relied on them to win some shootouts.  And in those past two seasons, they eventually ran into teams they could not outscore,who held their offense to 17 points or less.  And that could happen again this year.  I don't see their offense running wild against some of the teams they will/could be facing soon.

 

 

 

 

How did Vanguard give up 

For what it's worth, my impressions

I can't effectively address what Vanguard did in their other games as I only attended the Sebring game. My team is Trinity Catholic and I was at those games during the season. All that I can determine is that this Vanguard team only allowed 7 points against Sebring and that was a complementary TD in the last seconds of the game. Was also against a QB Williams who had a .704 passing percentage and a team that was averaging just under 40 ppg.  The thing to consider is that Vanguard is the only undefeated 6A team in the state. No matter how they won those games, they did win them. I understand your analytics and appreciate them. Whether they are real time concerns, I don't know. Coach Farmer's concern is getting his team ready to take on another very good team in Lake Wales with an even more prolific passing attack than Sebring. However, as I see it, Lake Wales is going to have enough on their plate in finding a way to stop 6' 5" WR Leonard Manuel and tough dynamo RB Kimo Clarke. Not an easy task.

[LakelandGator]

3 hours ago, Proseteye said:

All I can report is what I observed last Friday. Sebring is a very good team, skilled, disciplined, and were definitely motivated to defeat Vanguard. They are equal to or better than any team that Vanguard had played during the regular season. They looked promising in the first quarter until Vanguard moved right down the field and scored. Although Sebring had their moments it was pretty much all Vanguard from then on. Vanguard is not some miracle team like Armwood or Carol City. They are just a bunch of pretty good players who happen to be extremely well coached. Their formations and plays are just better than most. HC Farmer knows his football and he insures that his players are able to execute every Friday.

Sounds great, can I get my 21pts?

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

[DisabledAccount]

1 hour ago, LakelandGator said:

Sounds great, can I get my 21pts?

https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

You may have a chance to find a bet somewhere but idk who would take a bet with a spread that huge because odds are against the team to cover it

 

Which why i only bet on games straight up