See yesterday’s post with all of the Monday and Tuesday games and results The Semi-Final games are all over and the field has been cut in half.   A few of the Districts have already had the championships decided and by the end of the day on Saturday we should have the regional match ups all set.  See this post yesterday District 4 – Mandarin had a great season going into the District 4 Championship.  Coach Janine Brand had been awarded Coach of the Year, the team had an impressive record at 11-6, and they advanced to the District Championship for the first time in program history.  But it ended last night as Bolles proved there is no substitute for experience as they rolled to an 18-2 victory to take the championship.  They will now wait to find out if they play Fletcher or Providence from District 3.  I would like to point out that once we put up our District by District preview back on Feb 5^th a guy named “Charles” posted this thought…”To rank Mandarin of over Fleming is downright ridiculous, Fleming has beaten them every time they play, and Fleming has a junior class stacked with talent this year.”…Well Charles, we are waiting for you to jump in and point out how smart we are!!

District 6 – So far our Flagler Palm Coast pick looks good after the first round games last night.  Flagler defeated Saint Augustine 21-8.  Menendez knocked Matanzas out of the tournament 5-1. District 7 – We have to eat some crow here with our pre-season pick.  Much to the chagrin of some of our Buchholz readers we picked Trinity Catholic to take this district.  We were even accused of being Trinity Catholic staff members! (Which is not true, by the way)  However, Buchholz got the job done last night knocking Trinity Catholic out of the tournament.  They will face Oak Hall for the District 7 Championship who played PK Yonge in the semi’s. District 8 – Lake Mary rolled past Seminole HS 10-3 last night to take the District 8 Championship.  Seminole HS finished their best season ever, playing in their first District Championship game and finishing with a 10-7 season. District 9 – Last year Apopka went 14-2 and deep into the second round of the play-offs, this year they finished the season 1-13 with their only victory coming over 1-12 Edgewater.  We did not see that coming.  We thought this would be a Lake Brantley vs. Apopka Championship.  But it’s going to be Lake Brantley vs. Wekiva.  Lake Mary awaits the winner of that game. District 10 – Our pick for District 10 was West Orange.  We feel pretty good about that.  Ocoee has been a great surprise in this district turning around last season’s 5-10 record to a 10-5 record and a chance to play in the district championship. District 11- This one gets started tonight with Lake Highland taking on The First Academy and Boone vs. Bishop Moore.  If you aren’t busy tonight, the Boone vs. Bishop Moore game would be a pretty darn good place to be!  The games are at Bishop Moore Catholic located at 3901 Edgewater Dr., Orlando , FL 32804. First Academy vs. Lake Highland, 5pm and Boone vs. Bishop Moore, 7pm. District 12 – Our pick for District 12 remains Winter Park.  Oviedo finished off Trinity Prep last night 14-3.  With the horrific murder of two Winter Park HS students the superintendent made the understandable decision to cancel all Winter Park  HS events.  We believe the other semi-final game will played tonight. District 13 – District 13 is a two horse race between Timber Creek and Hagerty.  Hagerty has surprised quite a few folks this year winning their first 7 games in a row and then upsetting Winter Park.  They are going to have to pull another big upset to get past Timber Creek.  Hagerty defeated University 15-3 and Timber Creek defeated East River 21-0 in the Semi-Finals last night. District 15 – Tampa Jesuit has won this District with a win over last year’s District Champion Cardinal Mooney. District 22 – In our Season Preview we picked Benjamin to make it to the final four and they appear to be on track.  Benjamin defeated Suncoast 17-1 and PB Gardens topped W.T. Dwyer 13-11.  Benjamin was a 13-1 winner during the regular season meeting between these two teams. District 23 – We had picked Cardinal Newman to play Palm Beach Central for this district title.  Cardinal Newman came into the tournament as the fourth seed and played PBC in the first round.  PBC pulled out a 9-8 victory in a close game.  Wellington knocked off Park Vista to make it to the title game and sets up what should be a pretty good game.  Palm Beach Central won both regular season games between these two teams, but they were both close with the last meeting going to OT. District 25 – Stoneman Douglas beat West Boca 9-4 to win this district title.  We didn’t know much about this district in our preview and we still don’t.  But congrats to the folks at Douglas on winning the title. District 27- St. Thomas Aquinas rolled over Western-Davie 19-0 and we don’t know what happened at the University School vs. American Heritage.  But we’ll go out on a limb and say we are sticking with our preseason pick of St. Thomas Aquinas winning this district. District 28 – Top seed Archbishop McCarthy eliminated West Broward and Cypress Bay got past Cooper City 11-10. District 29 – In our preview we noted that Gulliver was the “team to beat” in this district.  And they did get beat.  They struggled all season limping into the play-offs with a three game losing streak and a 4-12 record.  Columbus at 12-3 and Ransom Everglades at 9-3 looked to be heading to a District title match up.  But Gulliver came back to life in time to upset Ransom 13-9 and prove that they are the team to beat if Columbus, who topped Miami Country Day, wants to keep their great season going and move onto the State Tournament.

District 30 – This district gave us what may have been the most bizarre side story this year as Coral Shores showed up with their regular season match up with Miami Killian in “black on black” jerseys.  That would be black numbers on black jerseys.  FHSAA is currently reviewing the rules infraction and we aren’t sure what will become of this.  We aren’t aware if they broke them out for the District Semi-Final game with Coral Reef or not.  However, we hope they leave them at home when the face Palmetto for the title.  Palmetto knocked off Killian in the semi’s.