Jacksonville capped off a nice improvement arc with a 29-12 win over Tampa to make next week's Florida final.
The Wolverines had opened the league season with a shutout loss and remained in a battle with Key Biscayne and Tampa, and even Gibbons, for a playoff spot. But their April 6 win over Tampa put them at 4-2, and this week the victory over Tampa was more emphatic.
"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster season," said Jacksonville Head Coach Aaron Church. "Getting the boys to be a team is always the coaching challenge."
Junior backs Nick Taylor (flyhalf) and centers Zander Erasmus and Slade Castle-Prince have been slicing up defenses while Prince Savea and Jesua Savua (brothers and cousins of New Zealand All Black Ardie Savea) partner with Logan Clifton to provide defensive leadership.
"We started out slow in the season with getting team chemistry as we had a lot of new players and pieces slowly coming in and developing," said Church. "We have a big junior group with a lot of new players; just three players of our starting pack returned from last year and our backs were sophomores last year."
But they have started to piece it all together.
"They have embraced the game plan, process, and each other and have become closer as a team," added Church. "Many of our players are multi-sport athletes so half this team was not there on our first game against Okapi. Now everyone is on board, focused, working hard, and understand the big task ahead next week versus a very talented, experienced, and senior-heavy Okapi side."
04.28.2024HS Boys
And yes Okapi is in the final, too. Undefeated and generally dominant in the league, Okapi ran into a very difficult Key Biscayne team. The Wanderers won, but just barely, 15-13 on a late penalty goal. For Key Biscayne, it was a good showing in what has been a solid season.
"Despite previous results, a game like this can happen," said Okapi Head Coach Juan Orfila. "Key Biscayne played their best game and we made many mistakes, mainly individual ones. Our lineout did not work well and we lost possession because of it."
Okapi didn't convert on some key scoring chances, as well, with three times what could have been a try resulting in a goalline dropout for the Rats.
"It was great for the team to be under pressure, with lead changes, and almost losing it," said Orfila, whose team will also be at HS Nationals. "We will learn a lot from this after a season that was pretty straightforward for us."
