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Today’s edition of Morning Coffee with FLN on Substack is free so the readers who do not have a paid subscription get to see what they are missing every day! Don’t forget to at least sign up for the free subscription, but understand the real insight is only about one Starbucks Venti or Trenta for iced drinks, or one McDonald’s combo per month, which you shouldn’t be eating anyway!

52 Girls games last night and 36 Boys games last night, but not a lot of big-name matchups; just plenty of games that will be looked back at come playoff bracket time!  So, let’s delve a little into some teams that are having good starts, while going about it quietly so far.

Before I get to that, don’t forget to take a look at Crease Kings on YouTube (and as they cycle through the 24/7 FLN channel), where you will find a weekly show dedicated to goalies in the state of Florida, complete with player interviews and tips on how to be a better goalie.

Crease Kings LINK

The college scene continues on, as the SSC schools jockey for position and playoff status.  If you missed it on the website, ALL EIGHT Women’s SSC teams, plus Flagler, either were in the IWLCA Top 25 in D2 this week or were receiving votes!  As the TV show in the 70’s said “That’s Incredible”!  And many of those games can be attended FREE; how do you turn down that opportunity in today’s age of inflation?  Take your young lady player to one of them while they can.

I’m catching up on all the Florida kids playing in D1 and should be up and running with those updates soon.  It’s always been one of the favorite aspects of our college coverage.  You’ll notice that in many of the press release articles posted, FLN has added references to performances by Florida high school alumni to keep you up on that.

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Manatee Girls are now 4-0 and all four wins were impressive, as they took down Academy of Holy Names, Berkeley Prep, ODA and Riverview-Sarasota by a combined score of 76-27.  Next Thursday they host St Stephen’s and that will give a lot of insight into how good they are, and a later match with Community School will add to that.  2A is looking like a bear this year in Region 3, with Newsome, Plant, Steinbrenner and Manatee all looking very strong.  Manatee is a junior dominant team, as the top 6 scorers are all in that class.  They are led by Grace Knowles, with 17G/9A in her first 3 games and she is committed to UNC Charlotte.

Their head coach is Jeff McGuigan, formerly the head coach at IMG, as well as 13 years at RIT in upstate NY.  Jim graduated from SUNY-Cortland a few years after I did at Hobart.  I’ll be catching up with Coach McGuigan next week and we’ll circle back here after.

On the Boys side, Oxbridge, a traditional power that had a down year in 2023, has jumped out to a 5-1 record, falling only to SA, which is pretty standard for everyone in Region 4 this year.  A solid test comes tonight with St Edward’s coming to Palm Beach Lakes, and the schedule still has Nease, Benjamin, Saint John Paul, Palmetto, Cardinal Mooney, Jupiter and Canterbury still to come.  The Thunderwolves (yes, after many years, I STILL have no idea what a Thunderwolf really is) are scoring more this year and senior Ryan Stowell leads the team with 16G/16A in the 6 games and there’s strong support from Campbell Zegras, JD Ross and Christopher Lawrence.  That’s an experienced group of 2 seniors and 2 juniors.  Junior Koury Dowd is at 50% in the net and Soph Tommy McMahon is at 68% on faceoffs. HC Stan Ross is known for developing long poles and stout defense and the formula works well when the offense is clicking.  We’ll be watching tonight, as the Pirates are 2-2 and also facing quite the gauntlet in the near future.

Those with memories of last season’s FHSAA approach to at-large bids know that there are sometimes an over-emphasis on won/loss and an under-emphasis on strength of schedule, so here’s a few great won-loss records that might make an at-large bid, so let’s keep an eye on them.

The Wellington Boys will be a great example, as they are 7-0 but against a weak schedule so far, as their only close game was a one goal road win at Park Vista, who is 1-5 against a very strong schedule.  Last year they went 6-10 and the best team on that schedule, Jupiter, does not appear this year.  Their toughest test is next as they travel Monday to undefeated Belen, who has two good road wins already over Boca Raton and Calvary Christian Fort Lauderdale.  So, if they go 13-2 and lose to Boca in the district final for 13-3, how does that play with the FHSAA rankings?  We’ll see.  Coach Johnny Hernandez’s team hasn’t posted stats yet, but I noticed they are a young team, with only 2 seniors on the roster.

The Apopka Girls are 7-1, with some blowout wins, a one-goal win over Windermere and 4 over Winter Park, but their only loss was 19-0 to Lake Mary!  How will the FHSAA look at this if they end up something like 14-3 with a semifinal district loss?  That could be a fascinating insight into the FHSAA approach. The corresponding Laxnumbers calculation has them at #56 in Florida and 26^th in 2A and they were the #5 seed last year in Region 1 after going 13-5.  When I look at Region 1 teams on Laxnumbers there are 7 teams in front of them, including the Winter Park team they already beat.  FHSAA is not out yet, so we’ll see the difference. 

Apopka’s stats are not up to date, but through 2 games they are led by Emerson Sheyda and Alexis Powell, with 8 goals each in the 2 games posted. Coach Katherine Pickels has a tough district with Lake Mary, Lake Brantley and Oviedo and avoiding the 4^th slot might make a big difference.  Oviedo is not on the schedule in the regular season, but Lake Brantley is.  It’s possible that game could mean a LOT more than realized down the line.

As we draw to the end of Week 3 of the regular season, we sometimes get a reminder of how fast things can change at a high school.  We highlighted the Melbourne Central Catholic collapse earlier this week.  Western-Davie was the #3 seed in Boys 2A in Region 4 last year . . . they are 1-5 this year with the only win by one goal over Independent South Plantation and have been beaten soundly by 4 others.  A safe bet is that they are not making the brackets this year.

The weekend is loaded with interesting matchups, so get out to one! Lambert (Ga) is in town to face both Ponte Vedra and Lake Mary! Lake Mary Boys also host Tampa Jesuit. Community School Boys get the ultimate challenge at home vs Saint Andrew’s; that should have a huge audience there. Saint John Paul hosts Jupiter! The Lake Highland Girls host Ponte Vedra in a rematch of that great semifinal game last year! And we are going to see if the St Thomas-Saint Andrew’s Boys rivalry gets replicated by the Girls!

Have a great weekend!

***

#TAFTAG

#LayOffTheRefs

#FloridaRising

#LacrosseFanAndDamnedProudOfIt

#StopYellingWard

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Thursday Results

Boys

Gulliver big over Miami Country Day

First Academy 20-7 over Windermere Prep

Alonso big over Freedom

AH-Delray 9-5 over Archbishop McCarthy

Boca Raton big over Park Vista

Jensen Beach 12-7 over Cardinal Newman

Maclay 11-5 over Buchholz

Palm Beach Central 10-6 over Dwyer

Fletcher 8-4 over St Augustine

Lake Wales shuts out Okeechobee

Winter Springs 13-6 over Father Lopez

Newsome and Durant No Score

Pine Crest 15-6 over Stoneman Douglas

Trinity Catholic big over St Joseph Academy

Wiregrass Ranch and Wharton No Score

North Broward Prep shuts out Pine School

Lake Buena Vista 6-5 over Apopka

Lake Nona 7-4 over Edgewater

Windermere big over Dr Phillips

Bartram Trail 8-3 over Providence

Rockledge and Merritt Island No Score

Foundation and University No Score

St Brendan 10-2 over Florida Christian

Admiral Farragut 12-2 over St Petersburg Catholic

Viera big over Cocoa Beach

Bishop Verot 12-6 over Naples

Colonial and Olympic No Score

Bradenton Christian and Lakewood Ranch No Score

Seminole Ridge 7-2 over Palm Beach Gardens

West Orange 10-6 over Lake Brantley

Satellite 7-6 over Melbourne

Estero 12-10 over Fort Myers

Barron Collier big over Palmetto Ridge

Immokalee big over Lely

Gulf Coast shuts out Aubrey Rogers

*****

Girls

Coral Reef 12-11 over Lourdes Academy

Countryside 7-6 over Largo

Seminole Ridge big over Palm Beach Gardens

Mitchell 8-2 over Calvary Christian Clearwater

Sickles big over East Lake

All Saints’ Academy big over Discovery

Saint Stephen’s 15-6 over St Petersburg Catholic

Miami Country Day 16-13 over Western-Davie

Jupiter 18-6 over Wellington

Fort Myers 6-5 over Estero

Bartow shuts out Okeechobee

Tocoi Creek big over Menendez

Edgewater big over Wekiva

West Broward and South Plantation No Score

Ransom Everglades and Pine Crest No Score

St Petersburg 11-7 over Bradenton Christian

Benjamin and Oxbridge No Score

Academy of Holy Names 12-8 over Berkeley Prep

Pompano Beach 4-2 over Cooper City

Clearwater Central Catholic 11-2 over Sarasota Military

Lakewood Ranch 11-2 over Venice

Lake Buena Vista and First Academy No Score

Nease 9-4 over Fletcher

Forest 9-4 over Lake Minneola

Booker T Washington 15-7 over Milton

Canterbury shuts out Gateway

St Edward’s big over Satellite

Atlantic Coast shuts out Riverside

Timber Creek shuts out Lake Nona

Orangewood Christian 18-6 over South Lake

Leesburg and Tohopekaliga No Score

Colonial and Olympia No Score

Lake Howell 13-12 over Boone

Wolfson and Paxon No Score

NSU University big over Palmer Trinity

Gulf Breeze shuts out Navarre

Sarasota big over Parrish Community

Fort Myers 6-5 over Estero

Bartow shuts out Okeechobee

Wharton 8-7 over Wiregrass Ranch

Apopka 10-6 over Winter Park

Santa Fe 12-11 over Gainesville

Barron Collier and Palmetto Ridge No Score

Pensacola 10-4 over Fort Walton Beach

Immokalee and Lely No Score

Newsome big over Durant

Gulf Coast shuts out Aubrey Rogers

Viera big over Melbourne

Alonso 16-11 over Freedom

West Boca and Olympic Heights No Score

Lake Mary and Lake Brantley No Score

Oceanside Collegiate (SC) big over Bolles

*****

Key Games

Boys

Friday

Berkeley Prep hosts Canterbury

Ponte Vedra hosts Lambert (GA)

Steinbrenner hosts Sickles

Oxbridge hosts St Edward’s

Cardinal Newman hosts AH-Plantation

Episcopal School hosts Gulf Breeze

Maclay hosts Niceville

Calvary Christian Clearwater hosts Mitchell

Saint John Paul hosts Jupiter

Benjamin hosts Columbus

Lake Mary hosts Jesuit

Bishop Moore hosts Lake Highland

Creekside hosts Oak Hall

Saturday

Timber Creek hosts Bolles

St Augustine hosts Gulf Breeze

Lake Mary hosts Lambert (Ga)

Montverde hosts Lovett (Ga)

Gulf Coast hosts Riverview-Sarasota

Community School hosts Saint Andrew’s

*****

Girls

Friday

Apopka hosts Winter Springs

Creekside hosts Oak Hall

West Florida hosts Booker T Washington

Jensen Beach hosts Benjamin

Tocoi Creek hosts Cherokee (Ga)

East Ridge hosts Lakewood Ranch

Steinbrenner hosts Sickles

Bloomingdale hosts Plant

Tampa Catholic hosts River Ridge

Lake Highland hosts Ponte Vedra

Saturday

Benjamin hosts St Edward’s

Community School hosts Berkeley Prep

St Thomas hosts Saint Andrew’s