Above – Lake Mary ended a great season for Father Lopez who went from 0-17 in 2014 to 9-6 this season- photo by Kacia Platt Last night provided a few big upsets where the #4 seed took out the #1 seed in several districts.  Most notable of these games was the District 31 Semi-final where Belen Jesuit knocked off Columbus Catholic in a 7-6 game decided in the final few seconds.

In district 17 both games ended in upsets as the fourth seeded Rockledge Raiders upset off top seeded Viera 13-8 and third seed Merritt Island advanced past Holy Trinity 8-6.   Merritt Island climbed out of a 4-0 hole to come back on Holy Trinity. In Tampa’s district 15 the top four teams were all very even so it’s hard to call an upset, but Berkeley Prep was previously undefeated against district 15 teams was upset by Steinbrenner 9-3.  Jesuit held off Plant 8-7 in a close one in the other semi-final game. There we no surprises in District 1 where top seeded Maclay rolled over Lincoln 17-0 and the second seeded Lawton Chiles beat Gulf Breeze 14-6.  Gulf Breeze had a good season finishing with a 12-5 record.  Keep an eye on Maclay, they are playing very well right now and new head coach Tyler Hardy has the Marauders peaking at the right time. District 4’s top seed, Providence beat Sandalwood 22-10 and will face #2 seed, Atlantic Coast, on Thursday.  Atlantic Coast advanced over Fletcher 12-8. In the three team District 5 Bolles had a bye as the top seed and will face Fleming Island.  FI defeated Mandarin last night 15-3.  Should be a good game as Fleming Island has never beaten Bolles but they are playing very well right now.  Bolles won the first meeting 16-10.

In District 8 both Lake Mary and Seminole rolled onto what should be one of the best district championship games in the state.  The Rams beat Father Lopez and Seminole had no problems at Winter Springs.  Thursday night should be a fun one as two of Seminole County’s Public Schools go at it! Daytona Beach’s Father Lopez had won 5 games total in their first 7 years of the program.  First year head coach, Andrew Hock took the team to an impressive 9-6 record this year. The District 10 semi’s featured a pair of lopsided games as Oviedo blanked Lake Howell and Hagerty topped Trinity Prep 22-13.  That sets up two old Seminole County Public School Rivals in this district as well. District 12 treats us to another good public school rivalry as both Boone and Timber Creek advance to the Championship.  Timber Creek beat East River and it was Boone over University in two lopsided games.  The regular season game between these two went to OT and last year’s championship game saw a great comeback win for Boone.

The district 14 semi finals played on Monday night sent West Orange and Olympia to the championship game to be played tonight.  It was WO over East Ridge 17-2 and Olympia beat Ocoee 19-10.  Olympia, with an 8-11 record, will be quite an underdog in this championship. No upsets in District 16 as Newsome stayed undefeated on the season and beat Freedom 16-5 while Wharton topped the number three seed Tampa Catholic to set up a 1 vs 2 championship.  Tampa Catholic wraps up a solid effort with a 12-4 record on the year. District 18’s Melbourne and Melbourne Central Catholic are set to square off in the championship game Thursday night.  The top two seeds advanced over West Shore and Sebastian River.

District 21 is set as Oxbridge and King’s Academy advanced the the Championship game. Oxbridge blanked Riviera Beach 20-0 and TKA extended their record to 12-4 with a 13-2 win over Cardinal Newman.  Despite the strong record, TKA is a sizable underdog going into this one, they lost 12-2 in their last meeting. District 22-American Heritage of Boca remains undefeated against district opponents with their 16-7 win over Palm Beach Central.  Wellington beat Park Vista 19-3 to set up a rematch of the one goal game earlier in the year between AH and Wellington.  Wellington is probably the best 5-12 team in the state and should provide us with a pretty good match up in this championship game on Thursday. District 23 – Boca High spent some time on our Al Packer Ford Coaches Poll top ten but this season but finished with an unfortunate five game slide.  They were knocked out by Pope John Paul II now faces a St. Andrews team that appears to be playing some of their best lacrosse of the year right now.  Pope was led by Johnny Hanlon who scored 4 goals for Pope. Drew Minchew had 2 goals and 1 assist. Chris Castellon and Patrick Brower had 1 goal each. Angelo Liguori had 9 ground balls. Carmine Giuffrida, Alex Reyes, Chase Caldararo and Nico Niro played a great game defensively. Niko Morfogen had 16 saves in the cage.  SA ran past Spanish River 19-6 on the other Semi Final. District 24 has a great match up for the Championship game as one of this year’s surprise teams, Douglas, is ready to match up with one of South Florida’s perennial contenders, Pine Crest.  Both teams won their semi final games easily and are ready for a big battle on Thursday.  The regular season match up was a 10-7 win for Douglas that began their current 13 game winning streak.  Pine Crest is looking to extend a five game winning streak of their own. Over in District 25 both Cardinal Mooney and ODA Sarasota held serve against the 3 and 4 seeds.  ODA Sarasota has put together a solid season at 7-5 but face an uphill battle against an opponent that outscored them 16-1 in their last meeting. District 26 – “District 26 should be an exciting district tournament,” yep.  I wrote that yesterday.  And I was right.  4-10 Ft. Myers is the number 4 seed and they took on the top seeded Cypress Lake team at 12-1.  In on OT semi final Ft. Myers pulled it off and set up a meeting with Bishop Verot.  Bishop Verot hung onto a two goal lead to eliminate Estero in the other semi-final game setting up a District Championship game between a 14-4 BV team and a 5-11 Ft. Myers team and no outcome of that one is going to surprise me. In District 27 Gulf Coast and Naples advanced which is no surprise.  If Naples upsets Gulf Coast that will be a surprise. Barron Collier and CSN both advanced to set up a championship game that heavily favors Barron Collier in District 28. District 29 – St. Thomas is solidly in control and after winning their semi-final 19-6 over Western Davie.  The are ready to face University School on Thursday for the district championship. District 30 – Cypress Bay improves to 16-2 after they knock West Broward out of the playoffs and Archbishop McCarthy is waiting for them after surviving the second OT game of the year against Flanagan.  These two teams played to double OT earlier in the year and then it took extra time to decide the game last night.  Will the Mavericks have anything left in the tank for Cypress Bay? We’ll find out on Thursday.