This past Saturday marked the final date for any district games in the FHSAA season.   The district tournaments will take place April 7th through the 10th.  With the district seeds now set we thought it might be a good time to take a look at how some of the teams stand around the state.   District 17 The first round matchups are the host school Viera (13-4) versus Rockledge (10-4) and Merritt Island (9-6) playing Holy Trinity Episcopal (10-4).  In the regular season Viera defeated Rockledge 14-3 and 19-4 so there is no reason to think they don’t win that.  Merritt lost to Holy Trinity 9-7 at home this year so that game slightly favors Holy Trinity.  Viera defeated Holy Trinity at home 7-6 on March 13th and since the game will be at Viera it looks like they will be the slight favorite to move on.  If Viera plays Merritt instead they hold a 13-9 home victory over the Mustangs.  

  District 18 Melbourne Central Catholic will host this district.  MCC (7-7) faces West Shore (4-8) in the first round and that will be a comfortable win based on the regular season result.  Melbourne High (7-5) meets Sebastian River (4-9) and that should also be a comfortable win setting up a final where MCC won the regular season game 21-7 at Merritt.  That should end up with an MCC win in the final.  

  District 19 Jensen Beach hosts this district, which should produce fireworks in the coming days.  Top 10 Vero Beach (13-2) is matched up with Martin County (10-6) and Jensen Beach (10-5) plays Saint Edwards (7-6).  Once again, South Fork will miss the playoffs even though they finished over .500.  Vero defeated Martin County 11-7 at home so this should be a solid game on a neutral site and Jensen easily handled St. Edwards 12-3 in their first matchup.  Jensen lost 9-8 at Vero in the regular season and beat Martin 9-6 at home so the final should be a tight one no matter what the matchup is.  Home field might well make the difference at some point.     District 20 Jupiter hosts the district and this should be an open and shut case.  After Jupiter (15-3) defeats Palm Beach Gardens (5-10) in the first round and Benjamin (8-6) defeats W.T. Dwyer (5-8) we will have another district final that will be worth the drive.  Jupiter defeated PBG 14-9 and Benjamin beat Dwyer 13-4 in the regular season while jupiter holds a 14-11 road win over Benjamin.  Given that result Jupiter goes into that final as the favorite but when these two teams play records get thrown out the window.     District 21 Oxbridge Academy hosts the district and it aligns very well for them.  Oxbridge (12-5) plays Suncoast-Riviera (4-9) after easily winning the regular season game 16-3 and King’s Academy (11-4) should advance against (5-9) Cardinal Newman, a team they handled 14-3.  Oxbridge defeated King’s 12-2 so this should be a comfortable playoff for Oxbridge.  

  District 22 American Heritage/Boca will host District 22 and that might make the difference this year.  AH/B (8-8) will play Palm Beach Central (3-11) in the first game and Wellington (4-12) hooks up with Park Vista (6-9) in the other.  AH/B eased by PBC 9-7 on the road and Wellington did the same 7-4 over Park Vista so that looks like the probably final.  They played a 7-6 game at AH/B in the middle of the season so that game should be a close one for the playoff slot.  

  District 23 Boca Raton will host this but right now it looks like Saint Andrew’s district to lose.  SA (11-3) is firing on all cylinders and will handle Spanish River (3-10) easily before taking on the survivor of Boca (8-6) and Pope John Paul (11-7).  Both teams were easy victories for SA this season and there’s no reason to think that will change in the final.     District 24 Pine Crest hosts this district and potential fireworks can ensue in the finals here.  Top 10 Stoneman Douglas (14-1) has an easy first round matchup with Cardinal Gibbons (8-6) in the first round after winning 14-1 the first time around. Red hot Pine Crest (11-5) takes on Caalvary Christian (8-7) and defeated CC easily too.  This will set up a rematch of an early season 10-7 Stoneman victory at home and with PC now holding the home field this is another one that is worth the admittance fee.  Hard to handicap this one.     So we come down to how the bracket might look and just like last year this one looks to be chock full of intrigue. As districts play out check back with us to see how that bracket will look like!