Challengers Line Up in Florida

Things are getting more and more interesting in the Florida Boys HS competition, as two teams that started a little slowly are now firing nicely.

The Tampa Krewe lead the league still, after an impressive 24-6 defeat of the Okapi Wanderers. Tampa has been enjoying a fine season from center Obie Cruz, an athletic and intelligent center who has blossomed this year. Cruz is one of six players who played for the Florida Juice all-star team last month against an Argentinian touring side - center Nick Deannuntis, flanker Zack Deitz, fullback Jordan Haggard, No. 8 Cameron Miller, and lock Jared Miller are the other five. 

But Tampa is not without competition. The closest of those is Riviera Beach Maritime Academy, which started with a bit of difficult early, winning two games very close, losing to Orlando, and tying Okapi, before opening up their offense and beating Tampa March 5. (See video of the game here.)

This past week, they fended off the Jupiter Sharks 22-20. 

"Jupiter played a really nice game," said RBMA Coach David Sellepack. "They kept the pressure up on our backline, trying to control us on the outside. What they did not anticipate was our ability to adjust our offense to take advantage of what Jupiter thought was going to happen."

Quick reactions and smart reads allowed the RBMA players to switch the ball back inside as Jupiter anticipated something else. That created gaps, and scoring opportunities.

"Our forwards had an excellent game controlling the breakdown, especially in the first half," added Sellepack, who saw Josh Majercik, Kyle Swett, Marcus Jones, Robbie Erickson, and Bo Jackson all make key plays up front. "Given each one was outweighed by 50 pounds, they demonstrated what a small pack can do when they stick with the game plan and make the larger pack run."  

Aaron Morad and Chase McKinnis led the team in tackles again in a good overall team performance. 

Jupiter, for their part, went into the game with four starters out injured, and then lost captain Kyle Edington to a nasty hamstring injury in the first ten minutes. He leads the team in turnovers created and tries scored, and the Sharks were a bit shaken.

Still, Jupiter was in with a chance to win it, or at least tie it. They dropped a couple of good scoring chances, and then right at the end of the game scored a try to make it 22-20. The tying conversion was charged down by RBMA.

So that's all an indication of how tough and how tight this league is. The Cape Pirates found that out as they were upended by another improving squad in Key Biscayne. The Key Biscayne team is young, and started the season 0-2. But in retrospect, a 20-7 loss to Tampa and a 19-17 loss to RBMA, still the top two in the league, wasn't such a bad thing. KB has since gone 4-0, including wins over Orlando and Cape Pirates, and now sit 4-2, and squarely in the playoff conversation.

Here's the latest standings. The top four go into the Cup Playoffs, the next four go into the Playe Playoffs, and the bottom two play-off for the Bowl.

In DII, St. Thomas Aquinas won 54-10 over Archbishop McCarthy, while Cardinal Gibbons upset Pompano. Aquinas is 6-0 and really has had only one game where they were pushed.