In case you missed it on Thursday, December 6, Marty Pallman joined Jeff Cardozo & Zach Alboverdi on “The Tailgate” on WRUF-98.1 FM & 850 AM in Gainesville at 4:05 p.m to talk high school sports. Here are the things they discussed on ThePrepZone.com Sports Report Presented by SunState Federal Credit Union:
High School Football Championships – I am live from Orlando today as the Class 1A state championship game between Madison County and Baker just wrapped up. The Cowboys defeated Baker, 48-6, to win their fourth state title overall and second in a row, after beating Blountstown, 35-20, last year here at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Madison County is 13-1 with their only loss, 48-24, at Class 7A Columbia (Lake City). Madison County ended Hawthorne’s season last week in the state semifinals as the Cowboys eliminated the previously unbeaten Hornets, 24-0. Hawthorne’s season came to an end at 12-1. Baker entered 13-0 and it would have been their fifth state title and first since 1993. The Baker Gators lost in the 2016 1A State Championship Game, 34-21, to Pahokee, which later had to vacate its state championship. Tonight in the 4A state championship game Raines (Jacksonville) faces Cocoa in a rematch of last year’s 4A title game won by Raines, 13-10. The Vikings have won 12 in a row since an opening week loss to Robert E. Lee (Jacksonville), 16-15, and is looking for it’s third state title in school history. Cocoa won three state championships in a row from 2008-2010 before losing to Raines here in Orlando a year ago.
North Marion plays for state title on Friday – North Marion (Citra) pulled the upset of the state playoffs last Friday after knocking off the #1 team in 5A Trinity Christian (Jacksonville), 29-25. Corey Wilsher hit Brendan Shipp with the game-winning 15-yard touchdown pass with 24 seconds left as the Colts stunned the Conquerors, led by Ohio State commit Marcus Crowley, and advanced to their first state title game appearance. North Marion is 12-2 with their only losses coming 20-14 to Vanguard and 24-21 at GHS in overtime. North Marion is the first Marion County public school to advance to the state championship game since Vanguard (Ocala) in 1994, and is attempting to become the first public school from Marion County to win a state football championship since Dunnellon in 1979. The Colts will play for their first state football title in school history on Friday afternoon (3 p.m.) in the 5A championship game against Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale), which is also making its first state title game appearance. So this will be a first-time state champion either way. In other state championship games in Orlando this week, defending state champion Hialeah Champagnat Catholic faces Tallahassee North Florida Christian on Friday morning at 10 a.m. in the 2A state title game. The final game on Friday will be a 7A showdown between Lakeland and St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale). This will be the fifth time these two teams have played each for a state title, with Lakeland winning three in a row from 2004-06 and St. Thomas Aquinas taking the last meeting 56-7 in 2008. Aquinas has 10 state titles, including three of the last four and four of the last six in 7A, with Lakeland claiming six state championships. Finally on Saturday, the 3A state championship game kicks off at 10 a.m. with defending champion Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) facing off against King’s Academy (West Palm Beach), and Armwood (Seffner) and Miami Northwestern will tussle in a rematch for the 6A state title at 3 p.m. Northwestern won last year’s meeting in Orlando over Armwood, 21-16. Finally it all wraps up with the 8A state championship game on Saturday night at 8 p.m. with Mandarin (Jacksonville) making its first state title game appearance against Columbus (Miami). This will also be a first-time state football champion in the 8A match-up. Mandarin lost four games during the regular season but advanced out of the North region, while Columbus is 14-0.
Basketball – It’s week two of the boys high school basketball season, and games are starting to heat up. P.K Yonge (Gainesville), under new coach Boderick Johnson, is 2-0 after blasting Oak Hall (Gainesville), 86-18, last night. The Blue Wave, who advanced to the 4A state semifinals a year ago, won their opener last week at the Purple Palace against Gainesville, 56-54. P.K. Yonge in back in action Friday night at home against Maclay (Tallahassee). Speaking of GHS, the Hurricanes dropped to 1-2 after losing at home in a District 4-7A game to Forest (Ocala), 69-65, on Tuesday night. Gainesville travels to Vanguard (Ocala) in another district game on Friday night. Eastside (Gainesville) is 3-0 after winning 69-43 at St. Francis Catholic on Tuesday. The Rams also won at Buchholz, 69-48, last Saturday night and are back in action tonight at Newberry. Newberry improved to 2-1 on Tuesday as they stunned Bradford (Starke), 81-80, winning the game with two free throws with no time remaining. Newberry’s only loss so far is to Keystone Heights, which remained undefeated at 4-0 after edging Middleburg, 53-52, earlier this week. Keystone hosts 2-1 Fort White tonight. Buchholz won its first game of the season on Tuesday, 48-38, against Suwannee (Live Oak) to improve to 1-2. The Bobcats dropped their first two games at Santa Fe (Alachua) and against Eastside.
For the latest in high school sports in Gainesville, check out our daily reports on 106.9 FM every weekday between 7:50-7:55 a.m. Here is a link to the archives.
