It’s that time of the season!!!   Yes Jim . . . not kidding . . .   First, the predictions:   Hagerty vs LHP West Orange vs Bishop Moore All Saints Academy vs Newsome Sickles vs Tampa Jesuit, Plant or Berkeley Prep   The only real miss was Lakeland taking down All Saints Academy and the wimp out on District 15, but All Hail Berkeley with their first District crown!   Hagerty Travels to Lake Highland Prep   17-1 Hagerty was truly one of the big surprises of Florida lacrosse this year after finishing 11-10 last year.  They lost their first game against Lake Mary and then ran the table.  It’s not an easy season to analyze as they did not play the other three teams in this sub-region but do have some nice road wins at Buchholz and Boone.  This is a rematch of last year’s surprise Final 16 game and LHP did handle them comfortably twice last year. This is not your older brother’s LHP of the past five years as their record is loaded with inconsistency.  In their losses to their tougher opponents they did not score double digits in 5 of the 6 losses and in the 6th they gave up 23 goals.  But this is a different level for Hagerty to reach for and the schedule they played did not prepare them for this matchup. Prediction:  LHP 14 – Hagerty 7   West Orange Travels to Bishop Moore   This is a heck of a first round game, not only to see, but to analyze too.  They did meet late in the season and BM came away with the 15-7 home win.  That cuts both ways . . . one team that is confident and one team that has now seen what they need to do. 17-2 West Orange opened with an excellent win over Boone and then kept going, beating up on a lot of middle of the road teams until they got to late March, where they lost to both Lake Mary and Bishop Moore.  They got back on track in the District and now face BM for the second time in 2 weeks.  Lots of offensive firepower but can they score against the better teams is the true question.  They need to make this a high scoring game to get the win. 16-2 Bishop Moore is on a streak of their own and has some very impressive wins, including a road win over Benjamin.  Road losses to Ponte Vedra by 3 and LHP by a last minute goal are the only blemishes.  In some ways this is a trap game for them, trying to avoid a mental letdown versus a team they comfortably beat while avoiding looking ahead to the potential LHP rematch. Prediction:  Bishop Moore avoids looking past this one and wins 12-9.   Lakeland Travels to Newsome   These two teams combined for a 30-1 record but frankly neither played much if a schedule. 15-1 Lakeland survived a 17-16 OT shootout at All Saints Academy to make their way to the brackets in their first year of varsity status and that deserves a shout out.  But their only loss was a 2OT home loss to a Sickles team that Newsome beat handily.  It was a great run and the experience will be a nice starting point for next year. 15-0 Newsome returns to the bracket after last year’s Final 16 run before losing to Plant.  This was pertty much a one game season and the victory over Plant looks better now after Plant’s district win over Tampa Jesuit.  The offense hit double digits in all their games. Prediction:  Newsome 15 – Lakeland 5 as the Newsome experience and program success make the difference   Berkeley Prep Travels to Steinbrenner   What a tough one to call here.  On paper this looks like it should be fairly easy for Berkeley Prep as they have the better wins. Until you look at February 28th . . . when Steinbrenner took down Berkeley in OT on their field. Their only big victory of the season, until the District final upset of Sickles. Steinbrenner was hammered by Plant while Berkeley beat Plant twice. This almost sounds like the Steinbrenner win is a candidate for Upset of the Year and it might well be.  i have to treat it as such, just a one-off.   Prediction:  Berkeley Prep gets revenge with an 11-5 win   That makes the second round look like:   LHP vs Bishop Moore Berkeley Prep vs Newsome   That’s a nice set up for the regional semis . . . Get out to a game!