4A Playoffs

[gatorman001]

Region 1: St Augustine HS and Choctaw seem to be the clear 2 best teams in this otherwise average region, as only 5 teams of the total 14 teams from this region, won more games than they lost. St Augustine only losing in OT to Neese HS and Choctaw losing to Pine Forrest and Niceville. I like the resume St Augustine has built much better than Choctaw's and I am picking them to be the Reegion champ.

Region 2: I see #1 seed Jones HS being the clear favorite, with Vanguard getting the #2nd seed. I watched Vanguard play this spring against Manatee, and to me they physically dominated Manatee, as well as exposed what the Manatee defense would be if not for all of its transfers at the LB position. I see a potential darkhouse in Lake Wales HS, but when all is said and done this is a Region that has to have Jones HS as its favorite.....Im taking Jones HS to be Region Champ

Region 3: Port Charlotte HS is the #1 seed, Naples HS as the #2 seed, Dunbar as the #3 seed, and Clearwater and Tampa Jesuit as 4 and 5 seeds. Port Charlotte has been good all season, but I see it a a team that has begun to peek with the end of the regular season. Naples HS appears to be a team that you could characterize as "As Shaw Simeon goes, so goes Naples HS football" in both of Naples loses this season Simeon failed to average 5 yards per carry or break the 100 yard barrier, in every other game Simeon average over 10 yards per carry and almost 200 yards per game. Naples HS looks to have a 2nd round rematch with Dunbar, that Naples won in OT during the regular season 21-20, that last 3 years (including this year) the Dunbar/Naples contests, have been games that kept every fan on the edge of their respective seat until the very last play of the game. This is a second round contest if you in a position to get to, I'd encourage you to go see! Darkhorse team in my mind is Tampa Jesuit, as I see Jesuit and Port Charlotte facing each other in the second round. I believe Jesuit could pull the upset here, but Im going to say Port Charlotte ultimately pulls out the win to setup a Port Charlotte versus Naples region final. I see Port Charlotte claiming the region title, primarily due to the home field advantage. This Region Championship is another final, that would be totally worth the price of admission!

Region 4: Norland HS and American Heritage HS are probably the best 2 - 4A teams in the state, that have the misfotune of also being in the same region. Their strenght of schedules of both schools rank 2nd and 3rd in the state of Florida. This is a region final that in my mind, when played is for the state championship! They played each other during the regular season with Norland taking that game 32-27, but later had to forfeit the win. Im going to to take American Heritage in the region final rematch.

State Final Im going to go with American Heirtage taking it all!

 

[MarkECannon]

Region 1: It’s hard not to take St Augie in this region. I’ll try to get 307mac over here to give us a breakdown. He is a Yellow Jacket graduate. Would love to see Choctawachee get in. Their head coach Frank Beasley was very kind to this board back when he was head of Football Operations at the FHSAA.

Region 2: Having seen Jones play twice I cannot see them not making it through the Region. It appears they have been coasting the last few weeks. That may be because of some injuries but I don’t know. If their QB is healthy they will be hard to stop with those D1 receivers they have. If they have a weakness it is you can pound their interior defensive line and take advantage of it in the late stages of the game. I would be surprised if Lake Wales makes it through but they did play Jones tough in the regular season. I was at that spring game with Gatorman to see Vanguard. They started slow this season but have picked up steam as the season moved a long.

Region 3: This is a very competitive region. Gatorman gave a good breakdown. Is Port Charlotte for real? Does Naples still have the cache that the program is known for? Is Dunbar going to catch that magic they had in the playoffs last year? I’m going to see Jesuit @ Clearwater so I will be able to tell you more about them after Friday. Many fans think the game will be Clearwater’s talent vs Jesuit’s coaching.

Region 4: I would love to see Norland make it past Am Her Plantation. Not sure they will be able to beat them a second time.

 

[307mac]

Well after about 5 years I guess I can finally post,I also have a soft spot for coach Beasley because he did take care of us during the finales years ago.I have to say this St.aug team has at least 7 starters on def and 7 on off that beat Choctaw last year and played in the finales,2 sr receivers one was committed to UCF the other has multiple offers and a jr who has offers from LSU ,Michigan and others,and the QB is going to USF and the RB may be 5’5 150 but he ran for 180 against Mandarin and is a shifty quick runner ,so I think we will go far and also don’t sleep on Riverside they played us close and besides WR Gelsey who’s going to Florida another WR is going to Indiana.Also Mark gatorman said 100% word for word how I feel 4a may play out

 

[MarkECannon]

In an earlier post I said another class was the most fun to watch. I’ve switched my allegiance to 4A.

American Heritage Plantation hosts Miami Norland: On a personal note, just about every FSU commit is on flip watch. Am Her 4 Star DB Greg Thomas who actually has Seminole blood flowing through his veins is currently committed to FSU. If we lose him . . . Okay I digress. The money is on Am Her. Norland QB Ennio Yapoor is one of my favorite players that I saw live this year. Would love to see him get another shot at a state title.

Jones hosts Vanguard: In the kickoff classic vs Sanford Seminole Jones knocked them around like sock puppets. I know it was a kickoff classic but it felt like a real game. It was played in Camping World Stadium and there was more security than I had ever seen at a high school football game. Well, I didn’t see a police helicopter there shining a spotlight into the crowd like at Tampa Bay Tech so that may have trumped this. Vanguard could pull this off but Jones would have to play badly. If Jones starting QB is healthy give me the Tigers.

Port Charlotte hosts Naples: If Port Charlotte plays their A game they should beat Naples. I think playing Jesuit the week before should help the Pirates because I know Jesuit made them tighten up their fundamentals. That should pay off for them this week.

St Augustine hosts Choctawachee: St. Augustine’s only loss was to then 6A #1 rated Nease in overtime. Choctaw has 2 losses with what could be considered a bad one to Pensacola Pine Forest that finished 5-6. I’ll take the St. Augie 307macs for the win.

 

[307mac]

Yeah St. aug put a running clock on Ed White 38-14 last week ,and E.W beat pine forest ,and pine forest beat Choctaw so I feel we should do okay ,plus last year they had Cole Tabb at RB who’s now at Stanford so hopefully we’ll come out with the win.

 

[Silver King]

Well, Naples continues to have Port Charlotte's number. It's hard to beat a team twice. Unfortunate because they feel this may have been their best team ever and it was one of those years where the schedule lined up and they played at home - we got that advantage when we beat St Thomas Aquinas in 2002, but then we had that streak of not being able to get by Armwood in the mid-late 2000s three times as I recall.

Pirates D played a whale of a game, but the QB that transferred from Charlotte, who served them well this season, had an ugly game. He threw 4 ints, including two pick-sixes to a D-Lineman. When's the last time you saw a stat line with a DL having 2 TDs?

 

[MarkECannon]

Sounds like Naples dragged Port Charlotte’s offense down and pretty much wouldn’t let them up. It’s disappointing to hear QB Logan Flaherty struggled. His family is good friends with my son’s in laws. Of course the fact that he transferred away from Charlotte to be a Pirate is not lost on this Tarpon family.

Now Naples gets to visit Jones. It will be a step up in quality of competition but if they can get Jones’ offense to have some of the same struggles Port Charlotte had they have a chance. I don’t expect them to beat Jones but if they can keep it a game into the 4th quarter they might have decent shot.

 

[gatorman001]

Well, Naples continues to have Port Charlotte's number. It's hard to beat a team twice. Unfortunate because they feel this may have been their best team ever and it was one of those years where the schedule lined up and they played at home - we got that advantage when we beat St Thomas Aquinas in 2002, but then we had that streak of not being able to get by Armwood in the mid-late 2000s three times as I recall.

Pirates D played a whale of a game, but the QB that transferred from Charlotte, who served them well this season, had an ugly game. He threw 4 ints, including two pick-sixes to a D-Lineman. When's the last time you saw a stat line with a DL having 2 TDs?

Wow, wasn't aware of that.....didn't look into the game beyond the final score....I was pulling for Port Charlotte as well...

 

[Fla2014]

That's unfortunate because I was really pulling for PC this year. I feel that they would have a good chance in the final four because they can pass/run and has a solid defense. Naples is physical and have a lot of skilled athletes, but they are one-dimensional on offense.