Class 3A, Round 3 Previews

[SPCjessica2004]

Jeepers! It's the third round of the playoffs.  First off! Congratulations to all of the teams that have made it to the final 8. I think these are indeed the top 8 teams in 3A and there should be some really good football games this week.

GAME OF THE WEEK
Orlando First Academy at West Palm Beach King's Academy

This has the makings of a classic match-up. King's Academy has gathered steam from a large population that it's the Lions and not the Seminoles of Florida High that will be in Orlando representing the north. That might be true but first the Lions have to deal with First Academy. First Academy defeated Father Lopez last week 40-20 behind a big game from running back Rolous Frazier with 4 TD's.  King's Academy knocked out Holy Trinity behind a stout defensive performance  from Jeremiah and Isaac Scroggins.

THE PICK:  This is a tough pick for the simple fact that I think King's Academy is a very good program but First Academy's offense is lethal. While shopping with my son  we went down the toy isle and he picked up a magic 8 ball. I asked if King's Academy will win on Friday. The response? My sources say no.   Funny thing about magic 8 balls, I never believed them.

King's Academy by 3

Taylor County at Florida High

Taylor County continues to impress and continues a strong playoff performance this week when they take on the Seminoles of Florida High. Florida High knocked off a young but rapidly improving Pensacola Catholic team last week. Taylor County gave St. Joseph's Academy their first loss. This is actually a rare public vs public regional championship game in 3A. While Florida High is officially classified as a "lab" school, they are also considered public.

THE PICK: Both teams have played similar levels of competition and both have some big time players. This is another game that could swing either way. De'Corian Bellamy is having a terrific post season for Taylor County. He's the heart of the machine. Florida High has multiple big name athletes and that will be the difference in this one.

Florida High by 14

American Heritage Delray at Chaminade-Madonna

The Stallions of American Heritage are a small school powerhouse that has fallen on difficult times in the past 2 seasons. This year the program has made a strong push back into the spotlight thanks to a very stingy defense and the running ability of Dallis Small.  Chaminade-Madonna completely trounced over matched Palmer Trinity last week. Trinity made the playoffs for the first time in their schools history.

THE PICK:  While I do not think the Stallions offense will do much against one of the top defenses in Florida, I do think the Stallions defense can frustrate Chaminade for a quarter which would be a win in itself. Outside of their 2 losses Chaminade has completely dominated the first quarter on offense against everybody else.  Due to the Stallions being unable to move the ball on offense Chaminade will likely play the field position game the first few series. Once the Stallions defense is worn down this one will get ugly.

Chaminade Madonna by 45

Tampa Berkeley Prep at Clearwater Central Catholic
This is a rematch from earlier in the season that CCC won 35-14. Berkeley Prep defeated Calvary Christian 21-13 while CCC defeated Tampa Catholic 30-3 last week.

THE PICK: Joshua Youngblood is one of the most prolific/entertaining athletes to watch in Florida. If you haven't seen him play you need to do yourself a favor and watch his senior regular season highlight tape. It gets more and more impressive each week he adds plays. He reminds me of former Berkeley Buc Nelson Agholor. Berekley Prep as a team beyond Youngblood is a capable team and would still be a playoff team, but not a particularly potent offensive team. I'm saying this because I expect CCC to limit Youngblood forcing somebody else to step up and beat them. The question is, who can Berkeley turn to? My guess is that there isn't anybody but boy oh boy will Youngblood give us a game to go out on!

CCC by 21
 

[DarterBlue2]

27 minutes ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

THE PICK:  This is a tough pick for the simple fact that I think King's Academy is a very good program but First Academy's offense is lethal. While shopping with my son  we went down the toy isle and he picked up a magic 8 ball. I asked if King's Academy will win on Friday. The response? My sources say no.   Funny thing about magic 8 balls, I never believed them.

King's Academy by 3

Too funny, Jessica. Frazier is the real deal and if he has a good night could turn back King's. This is probably one of the most competitive playoff games this weekend. 

[SPCjessica2004]

3 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Too funny, Jessica. Frazier is the real deal and if he has a good night could turn back King's. This is probably one of the most competitive playoff games this weekend. 

Darter, 

You are not joking! That young man is indeed the real deal. Earlier this year I think he was overlooked due to the strength of schedule but he's continuing his performance against better and better competition. I don't think King's Academy has seen a running back like Frazier. If First Academy wins, I'll be consulting with the magic 8 ball again!

[DarterBlue2]

7 minutes ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

You are not joking! That young man is indeed the real deal. 

Funny thing is, his dad is the pastor of a local African American church within walking distance of Camping World stadium. If they were to win this game and get to the championship game, the whole congregation may show up. 

[SPCjessica2004]

15 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Funny thing is, his dad is the pastor of a local African American church within walking distance of Camping World stadium. If they were to win this game and get to the championship game, the whole congregation may show up. 

How awesome would that be for that young man and his family?  Those are the stories I'd love to read about. Local stories about the teams and their communities.  Good information Darter!

[SPCjessica2004]

Accountability time!

My Game of the Week was King's vs Orlando First Academy. 

I had King's by 3. King's ended up winning by 1.  What a wild finish worthy of a regional championship game!  King's was down by 6 with 22 seconds left. According to the Palm Beach post King's needed 66 yards to keep their season alive. They got it and then converted the extra point to go up by 1.  I've seen bits and pieces of the game, but not the whole thing yet.  King's Academy has been a resilient passionate team and it's infectious. It's hard not to root for them.

First Academy doesn't really have anything to be ashamed of. They had a terrific season and literally came 22 seconds away from a regional championship.

Most importantly though! Let this be further proof that magic 8 balls are only as good as the question you ask it.

Jess 1, Magic 8 ball 0

I had Florida High over Taylor County by 14. Florida High won by 8.

Taylor County deserves a lot of respect for getting to the regional final this year. Florida High is a very quality football team that is playing with a lot of confidence, but Taylor County gave the Seminoles a game behind the prowess of Da’Corian Bellamy, but in the end the Seminoles special teams was just a bit to much for the Bulldogs to overcome.  Some really good highlights on BigBendPreps of this one.

I had CCC over Berkeley Prep by 21. CCC won by 28

Berkeley Prep is a quality football team, high quality. They have terrific coaches, numerous football players likely to play at the next level but it was always going to come down to Joshua Youngblood having the game of his life to have a chance to win this one and for his part- he did. CCC looked like two completely different teams in this one. In the first half, their defense was non existent, the offense was confused and there didn’t appear to be any energy. In the 2^nd half, CCC exploded for 300 yards offense, 28 points and the defense racked up 5 sacks on Youngblood ultimately knocking him out of the game with about 9 minutes left in the 4^th, but the game was already out of reach at that point.

I had Chaminade over American Heritage Delray by 45, they won by 11.

I think tremendous respect should be given to the Stallions defense for really frustrating the Lions offense for the better part of the night.  That was an amazing game plan by the defensive staff. The Stallions were in this one for all 48 minutes, but the Stallions simply couldn’t move the ball through the air enough to pull the upset, still the groundwork has been laid for the Stallions going into 2019. As for Chaminade, this is the wakeup call they needed. All 3 remaining teams in 3A have quarterbacks that can throw, although I don’t think any of the remaining teams have the defense of the Stallions either.

[OldSchoolLion]

I have no doubt American Heritage Delray had a great game plan.  But it is beyond me how a team with the tools that Chaminade has could not adjust in the second half and put more than 7 points on the board.  University put 50 points and a running clock on AHD. They had well over 500 yards of offense vs AHD, including 300 plus yards of rushing.

Chaminade is lucky they are not playing in the upper classes, because if they could not adjust to AHD, it is doubtful they could compete with a Cardinal Gibbons or American Heritage Plantation,at least that night.

[VeniceIndianFan]

34 minutes ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

Accountability time!

My Game of the Week was King's vs Orlando First Academy. 

I had King's by 3. King's ended up winning by 1.  What a wild finish worthy of a regional championship game!  King's was down by 6 with 22 seconds left. According to the Palm Beach post King's needed 66 yards to keep their season alive. They got it and then converted the extra point to go up by 1.  I've seen bits and pieces of the game, but not the whole thing yet.  King's Academy has been a resilient passionate team and it's infectious. It's hard not to root for them.

First Academy doesn't really have anything to be ashamed of. They had a terrific season and literally came 22 seconds away from a regional championship.

Most importantly though! Let this be further proof that magic 8 balls are only as good as the question you ask it.

Jess 1, Magic 8 ball 0

I had Florida High over Taylor County by 14. Florida High won by 8.

Taylor County deserves a lot of respect for getting to the regional final this year. Florida High is a very quality football team that is playing with a lot of confidence, but Taylor County gave the Seminoles a game behind the prowess of Da’Corian Bellamy, but in the end the Seminoles special teams was just a bit to much for the Bulldogs to overcome.  Some really good highlights on BigBendPreps of this one.

I had CCC over Berkeley Prep by 21. CCC won by 28

Berkeley Prep is a quality football team, high quality. They have terrific coaches, numerous football players likely to play at the next level but it was always going to come down to Joshua Youngblood having the game of his life to have a chance to win this one and for his part- he did. CCC looked like two completely different teams in this one. In the first half, their defense was non existent, the offense was confused and there didn’t appear to be any energy. In the 2^nd half, CCC exploded for 300 yards offense, 28 points and the defense racked up 5 sacks on Youngblood ultimately knocking him out of the game with about 9 minutes left in the 4^th, but the game was already out of reach at that point.

I had Chaminade over American Heritage Delray by 45, they won by 11.

I think tremendous respect should be given to the Stallions defense for really frustrating the Lions offense for the better part of the night.  That was an amazing game plan by the defensive staff. The Stallions were in this one for all 48 minutes, but the Stallions simply couldn’t move the ball through the air enough to pull the upset, still the groundwork has been laid for the Stallions going into 2019. As for Chaminade, this is the wakeup call they needed. All 3 remaining teams in 3A have quarterbacks that can throw, although I don’t think any of the remaining teams have the defense of the Stallions either.

Let’s take a look at my predictions:

I had Venice beating Bloomingdale by 30+ points. Venice won by 25.

I had Lee beating Edgewater in a close one. Boy was I wrong. Edgewater won by 35.

I had Lakeland beating Plant in a close game, but they won by 19.

I said Riverview would Finally get revenge on DP. I was correct.

I had STA beating Dwyer in a close game. I was really wrong here. They won by 35 points. 

 

[SPCjessica2004]

6 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

I have no doubt American Heritage Delray had a great game plan.  But it is beyond me how a team with the tools that Chaminade has could not adjust in the second half and put more than 7 points on the board.  University put 50 points and a running clock on AHD. They had well over 500 yards of offense vs AHD, including 300 plus yards of rushing.

Chaminade is lucky they are not playing in the upper classes, because if they could not adjust to AHD, it is doubtful they could compete with a Cardinal Gibbons or American Heritage Plantation,at least that night.

This is very, very true!  I'm writing this one off as a perfect storm. Chaminade maybe didn't bring their A game (coaches and players) and AHD had a point to prove. In addition, I'm sure there was extra emotion involved with Dunmore leaving AHD to go to Chaminade.  From those at the game I was told that something seemed off with Chaminade but nobody could pin point any individual/one thing.



 

[OldSchoolLion]

I read Chaminade had 20 penalties, 10 in each half...on their home field.  And their coach was quoted after the game ...“We knew it was going to be an easy game.”  I don't think I would be saying that after such a performance.  

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Dunmore had stayed at AHD.  I get the impression that without him, Chaminade's offense would not be nearly as good as it has.

[SPCjessica2004]

3 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

I read Chaminade had 20 penalties, 10 in each half...on their home field.  And their coach was quoted after the game ...“We knew it was going to be an easy game.”  I don't think I would be saying that after such a performance.  

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Dunmore had stayed at AHD.  I get the impression that without him, Chaminade's offense would not be nearly as good as it has.

My goodness! I didn't read that quote. My mind read it as "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game", but yes he is quoted as saying it would be easy.  I understand this is Miami style football and showmanship is part of the game, but in this case the game was over.  Sad!

[OldSchoolLion]

9 minutes ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

My goodness! I didn't read that quote. My mind read it as "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game", but yes he is quoted as saying it would be easy.  I understand this is Miami style football and showmanship is part of the game, but in this case the game was over.  Sad!

Maybe he was was misquoted and the paper left out "not."  Either way, it's embarrassing..  

[SFL SPY]

5 hours ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

My goodness! I didn't read that quote. My mind read it as "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game", but yes he is quoted as saying it would be easy.  I understand this is Miami style football and showmanship is part of the game, but in this case the game was over.  Sad!

I told you awhile back that Jones is clueless and an absolute joke. 

Finally the football world can get a small glimpse of what I have known for a decade or so.

In addition, I was told he did not shake one coach or player's hand from the AHD program after the game.

That, in itself, is disgusting!

 

[SPCjessica2004]

23 minutes ago, SFL SPY said:

I told you awhile back that Jones is clueless and an absolute joke. 

Finally the football world can get a small glimpse of what I have known for a decade or so.

In addition, I was told he did not shake one coach or player's hand from the AHD program after the game.

That, in itself, is disgusting!

 

SFL Spy,

Whoever the OC is at Chaminade is a total prick. I was reading his twitter. I'm really growing sour on Chaminade's coaching overall because I think the players are really good, but their whole "larger than life" show is growing stale. He claims to be a motivator, but he comes off as a guy that if he wasn't part of a school that abuses the McKay and Step-Up scholarships to no end would be struggling to find work.

I'm not trying to sour mouth the program but I openly question their coaching professionalism. A lot of the stuff they're letting onto social media paints them in an ugly light. Something tells me that the people responsible for turning Chaminade back into a power would be a little more respectful.

[SFL SPY]

14 hours ago, SPCjessica2004 said:

SFL Spy,

Whoever the OC is at Chaminade is a total prick. I was reading his twitter. I'm really growing sour on Chaminade's coaching overall because I think the players are really good, but their whole "larger than life" show is growing stale. He claims to be a motivator, but he comes off as a guy that if he wasn't part of a school that abuses the McKay and Step-Up scholarships to no end would be struggling to find work.

I'm not trying to sour mouth the program but I openly question their coaching professionalism. A lot of the stuff they're letting onto social media paints them in an ugly light. Something tells me that the people responsible for turning Chaminade back into a power would be a little more respectful.

It starts from the top and rolls downhill from there. A leader who lacks morals and class will accept it from his staff and players. 

Wondering how long the administration is going to put up with this circus?