Above – Stephen Chase and his Maclay teammates are firmly in command of District 1 This Saturday marks the final date for any district games in the FHSAA season.   The district tournaments will take place April 9th and 10th.  With the days winding down on the regular season and many of the district seeds already set (unofficially for now) we thought it might be a good time to take a look at how some of the teams stand around the state.

In District 1 Maclay is, once again, clearly in the driver’s seat.  They are 8-0 against district opponents this season and their closest competitor, Chiles, has lost to Maclay by scores of 16-1 and 11-2. It would take an upset of major proportions for anyone other than Maclay to advance out of this district. District 2 is a completely different  story.  Buchholz secured the number one seed for the district playoffs with a first-ever win over Oak Hall.  Oak Hall is the number 2 seed and will play Trinity Catholic in the first round, a team they beat 15-9 in the regular season.  Oak Hall is young and anything can happen, but we expect Oak Hall to make the championship game to face Buchholz.  That should be a great game which will lead to a very exciting first round game between Maclay and the winner.

Episcopal is going to cruise to a District 3 championship after going 7-0 so far with 7 lopsided wins against district competition.   Episcopal’s problem is that they are 1-7 against non-district competition this season.  The Eagles have had a tough time putting up goals as the competition goes up a notch.  They finish the season with games against Fleming Island and Bolles.  These games will be a great barometer for how prepared they are for a playoff run.

District 4 has been man-handled by Providence this season under new head coach, Brian Theiss.  They are 6-0 in the district but only 2-4 outside of district play.  They will most likely advance out of the district to face Episcopal in the first round of the state playoffs.  Judging from their performance against mutual opponents a playoff game between Providence and Episcopal should be exciting.

While Bolles is only 4-4 they are undefeated in District 5 competition and have earned the number one seed and a bye in their three team district playoff.  Bolles’ four losses have all been at the hands of top tier teams; Vero Beach, St. Andrews, IMG, Ponte Vedra.  Fleming Island and Mandarin are the other two teams in this district and played to a 5-4 Fleming Island victory in the regular season.  All three teams in this district have had good seasons with Fleming Island at 9-3 and Mandarin at 8-4.  Interestingly, Bolles still has 25% of it’s games left to play as they have 4 of 12 regular season games still on the schedule.  Bolles is a clear favorite going into the district playoff but nothing that happens with this group is going to surprise us.

Ponte Vedra has secured the top seed in District 6 and Creekside will take the number four seed.  Nease and Bartram Trail have yet to play their regular season game but regardless of the outcome they will play each other in the first round of the District playoff.  I suspect that if you like sandbagging then that regular season contest would be one to watch.  Ponte Vedra is a clear favorite to advance out of District 6 but it is notable that Nease did score 13 goals in the regular season meeting.  That was one of the best offensive efforts against the 12-2 Sharks this season. St. Augustine has locked up the top seed in District 7 and Matanzas has the number two spot.  It would be easy to look at the records and say that Matanzas will play St. Augustine for the District Championship and that St. Augustine has the upper hand.  But last year Menendez came out of the gates with a 6 game losing streak, followed that up with a 4 game loosing streak and limped into the district playoff with a 3-12 record. Then, of course, they caught fire and won the District Championship.   That scenario isn’t likely this season with the 2014 graduations of Nick Argitas (Saint Leo) and Daniel Chambers (Catawba) but we’re a little gun shy to call this one.

District 8 is one of those competitive districts that suffer from the fact that Lacrosse is merely a “recognized” sport in the FHSAA as opposed to a “sanctioned” sport.  The difference? Sanctioned sports send the top two teams to the state playoff and recognized sports only one.  So that means that two of the Top Ten teams in our Al Packer Ford Coaches Poll are going to play each other (most likely) for the District 8 Championship game and only one of them will move on into the State Playoff.  This is reminiscent of District 19 last season when St. Ed’s, Vero Beach, and Jensen Beach   were all three serious contenders and beat up on each other during the regular season.  St. Ed’s ended up eliminating Vero Beach in an OT game for the ages in the District Semi-Final game and then Jensen Beach beat them to move on into the State Playoff.  2014’s District 23 is another example.   Saint Andrews, Pope, Spanish River, and Boca all had teams that could have won half the districts in the state.  But only one would survive to move on from that district.  Benjamin and Jupiter last year in District 20…and the list goes on.  This year Lake Mary, always a contender, has what may be the best all around team they have  ever fielded.  But it’s going to be an absolute dogfight to even get out of the district.  Seminole is for real.  They played Lake Mary to a one goal game in a wet, sloppy, cold, grudge match of a regular season game.  Neither team played to their full potential that night and there is no way to tell what’s going to happen in the District Championship.   We would have to say the edge goes to Lake Mary but that edge is thin.  It’s going to be a “don’t miss” game.  Whoever does emerge is likely to have Ponte Vedra waiting for them as they look to head back to the Final Four for the 6th straight year.