Barron Collier vs. Cardinal Mooney St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Columbus Catholic   Barron Collier vs. Cardinal Mooney   This game pits the FLN Media Poll #2 team in the state versus an unranked team they are very familiar with.  Barron Collier comes into the game with a record of 17-1. With their only loss of the season on the road to then #1 Jupiter by a score of 4-3, Barron Collier comes into the game with plenty of confidence.  Their calling card all year long has been their stout defense, which has held their opponents to an average of only about 3 goals per game.  This allows them to run a patient offense and take advantage of fast breaks when the defensive play gives them opportunities to do so. Cardinal Mooney is coming off a three-peat, having defeated Bishop Verot in their District final after sweeping them in the regular season.  These two teams met early in the season and Barron Collier handled Cardinal Mooney easily, winning by 15-4 margin. There is really nothing in the season records of these two teams to think Cardinal Mooney can win this game but you still have to play the game. I look for Barron Collier to win this game comfortably and move on to a likely Regional Final matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas in a game that all of us would like to watch.       St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Columbus Catholic   Here we have a rematch of last year’s Regional final, won by CC in an upset.  STA has won the last two regular season matchups, including a 14-7 win at home during this season. STA features a high-powered offense combined with solid long poles and two proven goaltenders.  Their season opened disastrously as injuries to their starting attack decimated the offense, but STA Head Coach Terry Crowley managed to keep the team on the winning path. Going 6-0 to start the season, including a road win over Vero Beach.  In the middle of the season the personnel issues started to bite and the team lost 5 straight games against a very taxing schedule.  But as the players started to get healthy and the offense filled out the team took off on a winning streak to end the year and this is a dangerous team to play right now. Columbus Catholic’s season is different from last year.  Last season they came into the playoffs on a long winning streak and they were a very deep offensive team.  This year they graduated some top talent and the offense is a little less balanced than last year’s was.  CC lost to the three best teams on their schedule this year so that plays a role in what they have to overcome.  They rely on quickness to establish shooting room and they need to be accurate with their shooting to put up goals. Whenever these two teams get together they tend to play a high-speed transition type game, not quite what we used to call run and gun, but both teams are happy to get out in transition and try to take advantage of odd man opportunities.  STA’s settled offense is more effective this year, partly due to having good size in key positions and in a slow down game can do a lot of damage. I look for STA to win this game and move on, not necessarily as much of a margin this time around because that would require their goaltending to repeat what was a heck of a performance the first time around by Ben Tobin.  More like a 4-5 goal margin would be what I am looking for.  What makes this game a bit of a wild card is that when these two teams get together CC tends to get their way with tempo, and that gives them the ‘slugger’s chance’ but I see STA taking this and going on to a rematch with Barron Collier for the right to go to Bradenton.