We’ve mentioned the rigors of advancing through the playoffs by virtue of beating one of your district opponents not once–but twice–in the same season. After a two year sample, we are starting to think that beating the same team twice in one season is simply a mind-over-matter situation–that it’s possibly not that hard to do at all. Of course, there are situations where the runners-up get their revenge from the regular season, but if the last two campaigns are any indication, the trend appears to be in favor of teams making clean sweeps rather than sweating out a split.
Last season, there were 10 rematches in the regional semifinal round. The district champions in those cases were 8-2 in the rematches with eight of the ten teams sweeping the season series altogether. The district champions went 18-2 overall in the regular season and postseason against the district runners-up.
This season, there were a whopping 25 district rematches from the regular season statewide. The district champions were 16-9 in the postseason against their district foes. Below are the past two years’ worth of playoff rematches and how their season series ended. The bolded teams are the instances in which the runners-up defeated the champions.
2014
Class 1A
Port St. Joe & Blountstown (PSJ 2-0) –PSJ wins the 1A Championship
Class 2A
Glades Day & Jupiter Christian (Glades Day 2-0)
Class 4A
Bolles & Raines (1-1)
Class 5A
Cape Coral & Island Coast (ICHS 2-0)
Jesuit & Spoto (Jesuit 2-0)
Class 6A
Navarre & Choctawhatchee (Choctaw 2-0)
Class 7A
Niceville & Tate (Niceville 2-0)
Oakleaf & Fletcher (Oakleaf 2-0)
Class 8A
Apopka & West Orange (1-1)–APK wins the 8A State Championship
Columbus & Coral Gables (2-0)
2015
Class 1A
Blountstown at Port St. Joe (PSJ 2-0)
Dixie County at Trenton (Trenton 2-0)
Class 2A
Victory Christian & Foundation Academy (VCA runners-up 1-1)
Class 3A
American Heritage-Delray & Oxbridge Academy (AHD runners-up 1-1)
Class 4A
Bolles & Raines (Raines 2-0)
Class 5A
Rickards & Wakulla (Wakulla 2-0)
Ribault & Suwannee (Suwannee (2-0)
Jefferson & Jesuit (Jesuit 2-0)
Immokalee & Dunbar (Dunbar 2-0)
Hallandale & American Heritage-Plantation (Hallandale runners-up 1-1)
Class 6A
Tate & Pine Forest (Tate runners-up 1-1)
Choctawhatchee & Niceville (Niceville 2-0)
Gainesville & Vanguard (Gainesvile runners-up 1-1)
Port Charlotte & Charlotte (Charlotte 2-0)
Miami Central & Carol City (Miami Central runners-up 1-1)
Class 7A
Bartram Trail & Bucholz (Bartram Trail runners-up 1-1)
Martin County & Viera (Viera 2-0)
Tampa Bay Tech & Plant City (Plant CIty 2-0)
Venice & Braden River (Braden River 2-0)
Mater Academy & Sunset (Mater Academy runners-up 1-1)
Class 8A
Apopka & West Orange (West Orange 2-0)
Boca Raton & Delray Beach-Atlantic (Atlantic 2-0)
Columbus & Coral Gables***
Southridge & South Dade (South Dade 2-0)