Seven Plant City-area football teams are going for Superbowl gold starting this weekend.
The Tri-County Youth Football and Cheerleading Conference’s playoffs are set to begin Saturday and end with the Dec. 2 championship series at the Dover Patriots’ stadium, 1300 Sydney Dover Road, Dover.
Mighty Mites
The Plant City Dolphins are set to take on the East Bay Bucs in one of the first games of the 2017 playoffs.
East Bay and Plant City each finished with an 8-2 record but the Bucs owned the tiebreaker after the team defeated the Dolphins, 25-20, on Aug. 26. The Bucs enter as the four seed and Plant City is seeded fifth.
The Plant City Mighty Mites are looking to get back to the Superbowl for the first time since 2015.
Pee Wees
Plant City’s Pee Wees team is hoping their season ends with a Superbowl win, and there is potential for a 2016 rematch.
The third-seeded Pee Wee Dolphins finished the season at 9-1, stuck in a three-way tie for first place with the Lakeland Eagles and the East Bay Bucs. The Lakeland Hurricanes, whom Plant City picked up a 13-7 win over on Oct. 7, will be the Dolphins’ first-round opponents.
Plant City players are likely hoping to catch the Eagles outside one more time in a 2016 Superbowl rematch.
Midgets
Last year’s Plant City Dolphins Midgets team had the distinction of being the only PCD squad to win its Superbowl game, a 20-13 victory over the East Bay Bucs.
Expectations are high once again, and for good reason: the Dolphins are the only Midgets team with a perfect 10-0 record. The PCD Midgets are also hoping to beat the Eagles but, unlike the Pee Wees, will get the team in the first round. The teams last played each other Oct. 29, when Plant City cruised to a 27-0 shutout win.
Junior Varsity
The Dolphins’ Junior Varsity team, which finished the season with a 7-3 record, would love to draw the top-seeded Lakeland Hurricanes in the second round. In last year’s Superbowl, the JV ‘Canes handed the Dolphins a 49-33 loss in the most action-packed game of the day.
To get there, Plant City will have to top a five seed Brandon Cowboys team it beat, 46-0, right after Hurricane Irma came through the area.
The Turkey Creek Trojans JV team also made the cut this time around. The only Trojans squad to make the playoffs, Turkey Creek will get the two seed East Bay Bucs in the first round.
In the teams’ Aug. 19 meeting, East Bay traveled to Turkey Creek and picked up a 38-6 win. Should the Trojans win, they will draw the winner of the Lakeland Gators-Pinecrest Pilots matchup in the second round.
Varsity
Plant City’s Varsity team enters the playoffs as the two seed with a 9-1 record, having only lost to the top-seeded Lakeland Hurricanes.
The Dolphins will start with a game against the New Tampa Wildcats, whom they defeated by forfeit on Sept. 30, and could draw Pinecrest in the second round. That would be an intriguing game for the Dolphins, who were defeated, 40-0, by that Pilots team in the 2016 Superbowl.
The Dover Patriots will also have a horse in the Varsity division race as the tournament’s eight seed. Dover, which finished with a 3-7 record, will kick things off with a first-round game against the undefeated Hurricanes. The two teams did not face each other in the 2017 regular season.
For game locations and more information, visit www.tcyfcc.com.