There’s a very real chance Strawberry Crest’s 2019 football season can end on a high note this Friday night in Dover.
Crest will host Brandon (0-9) in the teams’ regular-season finale and the Chargers will look to put another unlucky streak to bed with a second win of the season. Last week, Crest went to Bloomingdale and snapped a four-game scoreless streak when Caleb Goodson hit junior Jesse Waldrop with an 11-yard touchdown pass near the end of the second quarter. It would be the only score for Crest at the end of the game, a 60-6 loss, but it’s something for the team to build upon this week.
Brandon put up its best all-around performance of the season when it hosted Blake last week, though that ended up being a 14-10 loss for the Eagles. Those 14 points were the fewest the BHS defense has allowed all season and the 10 points were the third-most the team has scored in 2019. No stats for the game were posted to MaxPreps.com and, as of press time, Brandon hasn’t posted any stats at all for the season.
A win would give the Chargers their first since the Aug. 23 season opener at Leto, which came with a 20-6 final score. Crest’s 59 points for the season against a tough slate of opponents makes this Chargers squad the highest-scoring bunch since the 2016 team finished with 62 points for.
PLAYOFFS?
Last week’s Battle for the Redman Cup effectively squashed any chance Durant had at sneaking into the 2019 FHSAA regional playoffs and kept Plant City’s hopes for snagging a spot alive.
With a Week 11 bye (which Durant also has), the Raiders now have to play the waiting game this week to see if enough things go in their favor to get back to the postseason. As of Tuesday’s FHSAA update, Plant City (0.560 RPI) is right behind St. Cloud (0.574 RPI) on the playoff bubble.
Though the order of the current top eight teams shuffled after last Friday, the teams still in the Class 7A-Region 2 tournament remain the same. Armwood (0.714 RPI) jumped Lakeland (0.706 RPI) for the No. 1 seed and rounding out the top four are Viera (0.676 RPI) and Bloomingdale (0.653 RPI), respectively.
All four schools will have hosting privileges if they can stay in the top four spots after this week’s games. Lakeland is the only team in that group that has already finished regular season play.
The fifth through eighth spots are as follows: Tampa Bay Tech (0.647 RPI), Wiregrass Ranch (0.634 RPI), Winter Haven (0.625 RPI) and Melbourne (0.594 RPI). All four schools have games scheduled for Friday, as do St. Cloud and the team behind Plant City, Tohopekaliga (0.530 RPI).
Raider fans will have to keep an eye on Melbourne and St. Cloud this week, as both are playing teams with high win percentages — which do factor into a team’s RPI score. Melbourne hosts 8-1 Eau Gallie, which is riding a six-game win streak, and St. Cloud will visit 7-1 Victory Christian Academy, which is coming off of its bye week following a close loss to a very good Trinity Catholic team.
If there is a tie in the standings according to RPI, it will be broken by the FHSAA on Sunday when it finalizes the rankings and completes each class’s playoff brackets. The FHSAA plans to start populating the 1A bracket at 7 a.m. this Sunday and will continue throughout the day until the last one, Class 8A’s, is finished. Visit fhsaa.org/sports/football for more information.