Vero’s traditional rival was Merritt Island due to both programs meeting in hard fought games in their state championship years. As you mentioned Vero has always had a “rivalry” with Fort Pierce Central as they were the two dominant programs in this area and were district foes. Central has a bit of a chip (rightly so) about their kids being “home grown” as they lose a significant amount of talent to Vero and their resources. But to be honest, Central’s main rival has always been Fort Pierce Westwood and even the Vero games don’t carry the intensity and hatred that the “Showdown” game does each year- which is why it’s played on Saturday morning.    Vero’s true rival should be Sebastian River, because they’re the only two public schools in this county. When they played the games were heated and exactly what a rivalry game should be. Sebastian River broke off the game a few years back and now refuse to play Vero because they said the game got too intense and they wanted to let it cool for a bit. Truth be told, Sebastian was no longer competitive and the game was embarrassing on their end. Hopefully if they can turn their program around the game can be played again.   As of right now, I would say Vero has no “rival” to speak of. 

You just described about 80 percent of the teams in South Florida. Lol. 

I saw Boynton Beach play in week 3 in a home loss to Santaluces 9-7.  That being said it was a month and half ago.  I’ll tell you what I observed.  Their defense played tough.  They made things difficult for the Santaluces running back that received some pub earlier in the year.  It was obvious he was public enemy #1. He was not going to beat them.  Offense was not anything to write home about.  They did have a couple of receivers that were quick and got open.  The problem was the QB was inaccurate for much of the night. My guess is if the Panthers put 17 points on the board the victory will be assured.

This is related to the topic we discussed last week. I have some numbers to share with everyone. Looking at all 2,193 in-state games played through Saturday, on average, the winning team is 25.7 points better than the losing team. I have compiled point margins for all 2193 games and came up with a simple chart. Some of you may disagree with the grades I've given each group. This is my opinion but I'm anxious for feedback. As you can see below, 37% of our games are pretty good or better with 20% being really good. However, 47% are pretty awful. In fact, 871 games (40% of all games played) were decided by 31 points or more. Can we do anything to shore this up? Grade Interest Point Margin Games Pct Cumul. A+ Excellent 1-3 178 8% 8% A  Really Good 4-8 259 12% 20% B+ Good 9 -12 160 7% 27% B  Pretty Good 13-17 222 10% 37% C+ Somewhat  18-21 153 7% 44% C  Not Really 22-26 180 8% 53% D+ Poor 27-30 170 8% 60% D  Bad 31-35 201 9% 69% F Horrible 36+ 670 31% 100%                   2193    

Were most of the fouls procedural penalties or judgement calls?