State Semifinals Week

[MarkECannon]

Every class from 1A-8A will play their state semifinals games this Friday night. As much as I love going to the State Finals this week might be the best week. Many matchups provide the 2 best teams of a classification playing each other therefore providing the de facto championship game.

We are going to Miami Northwestern @ Tampa Jesuit in 6A. The other 6A semi is Orlando Jones @ Pensacola Pine Forest. That’s a long bus ride for the Jones Tigers.

I attended the Jones @ Ocala Vanguard quarterfinal last Friday night. Jones is very talented with a QB that can wing it all over the field. Jones weathered a Vanguard comeback to win 28-26.

Jesuit is 13-0 with a victory over St. Thomas Aquinas. Northwestern is 10-3 with their 3 losses being once to IMG and twice to Miami Central. There is no shame in losing to those 2 teams.

 

[Silver King]

Thanks for the recap Mark. Semi final game in 1970 we went from Punta Gorda to Quincy Shanks that was almost as far. We practiced on FSU's field.

 

[MarkECannon]

Quincy Shanks! Y’all must have played in the woods. Shanks merged with another school after it was considered dilapidated. Shanks produced some good football players. Of course now it’s East Gadsden.

 

[Silver King]

Yeah, it was a wild place to play. We should have won that game, starting QB went down but we threw a pass to their 10 with under a minute and a penalty brought it back.

 

[Silver King]

Man Venice looks tough this year.

 

[gatorman001]

My Junior year I attended Manatee, Rickards and Lincoln high schools, before returning to Bradenton for my senior year. While at Rickards I learned about Quincy Shanks high school as they were apparently rivals in football. One of the Rickards football player’s describe playing Shanks this way........(Man, some of those suckers weighed 240 lbs without their pads on!), that was the same year Godby high school behind the trio of Sammy Knight, Chris hobbs and Victor Pompey running the Wishbone offense defeated Gene Cox Leon Lions for the 1st time ever at Capital Stadium and would later defeat Miami Carol City in Lakeland for its 1st state title. As I recall that fall Stevie Wonder’s album (Songs in the key of Life) was also released?

At Christmas break we moved once again and then I attended Lincoln high school, where I was introduced to Jeff and Ginger Bowden due to my Gator decals on my notebook......dad was in his 1st year as the head coach at FSU

Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter and musician Stevie Wonder. It was released on September 28, 1976

 

[gatorman001]

Man Venice looks tough this year.

I believe a discipline team like Columbus could give Venice serious problems, was thinking about maybe going to the game friday night. West Orange was every bit as talented as Venice last Friday, but completely lost its composure after Venice scored on that long pass as the final seconds of the 1st half ticked off.

 

[MarkECannon]

gatorman001, it is interesting what you say about Columbus. I’ll keep a close I eye on that game Friday night. I attended the spring jamboree at Venice. I was very impressed the way Venice’s offense surgically dissected Lakeland’s defense.

Haven’t seen Venice this season although I had planned to. My son who lives in Punta Gorda saw them last week and is excited about Friday night’s game. He’s good friends with Pac-Man, Dishon Platt, who has two sons on Venice.

 

[Silver King]

They get the best in the area - Port Charlotte's best WR went there and didn't make the cut, they optioned him back in a couple weeks. Winning will do that.

 

[MarkECannon]

Everyone is excited that’s going to Miami Northwestern @ Tampa Jesuit tonight. Might even have a Peezy sighting.👀

 

[Silver King]

Give him a hug for me

 

[MarkECannon]

Give him a hug for me

No Peezy. No hug 😕

 

[wowow]

Wow....Merrit Island won BIG

 

[MarkECannon]

Well Peezy didn’t make it to the Jesuit beat down of Miami Northwestern but Mike Evans and a few other Buccaneers were there.

Unless Pensacola Pine Forest is a lot better than most people think we just attended the de facto 6A state championship. Jesuit proved again to be one of the best teams in the state this year no matter what the class.

Except for some first half offensive penalties on 3 straight drives by Jesuit this could have been a running clock during the 2nd half. The final score was 37-12 Jesuit. The Tigers precise route running, pinpoint passing and mostly sure handed receivers were too much for MNW DB’s. Jesuit’s star RB #24 Joquez Smith ran wild for 240 yards with 3 TD’s.

I attended the game with good friends that included Chris Anderson (fmgreenwave).

 

[wowow]

The Governor showed up at Merritt Islands game

 

[gatorman001]

I've been wrong about a few of these teams along the way, After watching Palmetto lose to Tampa Tech, in a game they could have just as easily won, I figured Lake gibson was a a shoe-in to make the title game. Instead Tech will be lining up to face what should be a heavily favored STA team in a couple of weeks for a chance at the 7A title

I also expected a competitive Venice/Columbus game, instead I watched Venice just physically man-handle a Columbus football team from start to finish........something I don't believe Columbus experiences all that often. I haven't seen Apopka play this season, I know when Darlington coached them if nothing else you could always count on a Apopka team that could take a punch as well as dish it right back. So this match-up for the 8A title intrigues me right out of the gate!

Jesuit has been a quality football program for as long as I can remember! I remember when Manatee's JV team always had the Jesuit JV team on its schedule, just because it was a great game and measuring stick to see where your program was heading. Jesuit is a football program I've long wondered why it hasn't achieved the kind of success some of the other private schools around the state have in football? The Tampa Bay area certainly isn't lacking in over-all talent. I really enjoyed watching the Northwestern beat down friday night, just as much I enjoy just watching this Jesuit team play! I see them as the 6A favorite!

Merrit Island beat a Sebring team 12-10, that had to kick a last second field goal the week before to win its game against Clearwater. I watched Clearwater a number of times this season and was never really impressed, and I wasn't overly impressed with Sebring either when I watched them against Clearwater. Miami Central should be favored in the 5A title game.

 

[Silver King]

I heard Sebring had quite a few transfers that were starters at Hardee, followed a coach.

 

[MarkECannon]

Tampa Bay Tech just wins. There is nothing spectacular about them. They know who they are and they stick to it. I commend their coaching staff for keeping them in their lane.

I have to admit that I would not have thought Apopka would make it this far after we saw them lose to Edgewater. Apologies to my good friend DarterBlue2. The best thing about this is he will be at the state finals on the Saturday Apopka plays. Anyway the night we were in Apopka they had no passing attack. Edgewater sold out on stopping the run and they did just that. Apopka did contain Edgewater’s star RB Cedric Baxter. Apopka was burned by Edgewater’s passing attack.

It is interesting that Merritt Island is in the finals. Having known some people connected to the school they are a proud program. Ancient history, Merritt Island visited my Sarasota Sailors in the mid to late 1970’s. They were ranked #1 in the state at the time. Merritt Island cheerleaders even held up the #1 symbol with gold glitter on it. The Sailors upset them if I remember correctly by a score in the teens.

 

[gatorman001]

You were around for those Charlie Cleland days?.......Manatee used to always play Sarasota the very 1st game of the back then. I remember a pretty good player for Sarasota with a last name of Cannon? I remember Tony Waters, Paul Purwoski(sp?), Jimmy Dubose, wasn't there a also a kicker by the name of Brian Cox that went onto kick for the gators? Were you around for the Riverview team that had Tony green, a WR last name Chestnut, and QB name Larry Berkery on it?

 

[MarkECannon]

Yes I was but did not play football. Started following the Sailors when we moved to Sarasota in 1972. I went to Sarasota High 78-80. The first high school game I went to was The Turkey Bowl 1972. Sarasota Riverview @ Sarasota. I believe the game started at 11am on Thanksgiving Day. Riverview’s Tony Green vs Sarasota’s Tony Stephens. Both went to UF.

I could go on and on. Roosevelt Snipes & Eric Ryan were the superstars when I was went there. Pretty much everyone knows Roosevelt’s story. Eric was my neighbor from across the street. His senior year he was considered top 5 OL in the nation. He followed his buddy Paul Piurowski to FSU.

 

[gatorman001]

Sarasota put out more than a few quality linemen during the 80s, Shawn Hocker (who also won a state title in Wrestling in the heavyweight class), he went on to play football at North Carolina, Tim Johnson went to at Penn State, Magi El Shaway, I believe went to FSU, Lady I started the same night with at the USPS 1/27/79, her name was Jean Jackson.....her son played on the OL for Sarasota too! I remember Rosey Snipes and Eric Ryan too.

 

[TheCatCoachesMissesMe]

Wow....Merrit Island won BIG

Yea I thought those Sebring Wildcats had it in the bag!!!

Oh my bad, with all the transfers from Hardee to Sebring this past year I thought Sebring changed their mascot's name!!! 😎😎