Gassing Up the Busses For Gainesville
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
December 4, 2003

Incredible as it may seem, Dade County, which was supposedly not doing too well this year has five teams competing for a chance to go to a state championship game next weekend in Gainesville.

They are Carol City and Killian in 6A, Edison in 5A, Booker T. Washington in 4A and Monsignor Pace in 3A.

When the season started, there were only two teams that most people thought had a real chance at getting all the way to Gainesville and they were Carol City and Edison.

Killian was a borderline team that was thought to have a shot to make it to the state semifinals simply because Region 4 was considered a weak region, but with the resurgence of Southridge, the Cougars are actually somewhat of a surprise to some people, including yours truly. They knocked off the Spartans in convincing fashion shutting them out 20-0 to advance to the game this week against the mighty Chiefs.

Carol City, the favorite in 6A to start the season, exacted a measure of revenge throttling 12-0 top ranked Northwestern 26-6 at Pro Player Stadium. The Bulls had embarrassed the Chiefs just five weeks earlier 19-0 to win the district championship.

The other team most expected to be playing for the state championship was Edison. The Red Raiders had the defense, the offense and had big play threats all over the field. The question was, could this team overcome itself and silly mistakes, such as penalties, interceptions, fumbles and the basic mental breakdowns in a football game.

Edison has avoided those mental breakdowns throughout the playoffs. That is why the scores of its games have been so lopsided. This team is simply too good and if Edison plays Edison football, there isn’t a team in Florida that can knock these Red Raiders off. Naples will be the next one to find that out.

I don’t know which one is more of a shock. Pace or Booker T. Washington?

Neither team could have realistically expected to be playing right now, but yet they both are. They both have already pulled off a couple of upsets.

Booker T. knocked off a Titusville Astronaut team that hadn’t lost a home playoff game in a long while. At the same time, the Tornadoes committed 6 turnovers, yet still managed a 14-9 win. They followed that with a 27-0 of Merritt Island, the same that beat Melbourne Palm Bay in the season finale. Now, they get a duel with No. 1 Seffner Armwood.

Armwood has a ridiculous offense that has averaged over 50 points per game, but all season long the questions arose in my head about this Armwood squad that has played absolutely nobody, let alone a team the caliber of Booker T.

Let’s also remember this Booker T. team had only 16 academically eligible players when Tim “Ice” Harris took over as head coach this summer.

The job he has done is absolutely remarkable.

On the other hand, Pace finished this season at 7-3, a far cry from the 10-0 regular season record they posted last season.

Big difference. The scheduling.

Pace didn’t play Edison, Norland or Central last season. They played Trinity Christian at home and didn’t take on a tough Lake Brantley squad that shocked them on their home field.

But what that schedule did was put the Spartans through the rigors of playing the big boys, teams they would have to beat in order to bring home the hardware.

And they have done just that knocking off an undefeated Lakeland Kathleen squad on the road, and beating Cocoa the week after Cocoa beat top ranked Belle Glade Glades Central. They travel to Sarasota to face off with 13-0 No. 2 Booker. This is why coach Joe Zaccheo made the schedule as difficult as he did.

I guess I would say Booker T. would be the bigger shocker of the two making it this far, but Dade County has five fantastic football teams that are still playing this week and will be taking that wonderful ride to Gainesville next week.

The Zone Man’s predictions are as follows:

Class 6A: Carol City 27 Killian 12
Class 5A: Edison 34 Naples 14
Class 4A: Booker T. Washington 23 Seffner Armwood 13
Class 3A: Monsignor Pace 24 Sarasota Booker 22