The road to Orlando continues with our quick look at what we feel are the three “toughest” roads to the State Finals in Orlando the first and second weekends of December. In a previous blurb, we gave you three teams we feel have it *cough* “easy” in terms of the trek, but in this one–we give you the three teams we think have it much, MUCH differently in their quest for a ring.

#1 Manatee
Doesn’t really matter where the venue is–the ‘Canes must defeat Dr. Phillips this Friday, and then face either Kissimmee-Osceola or undefeated Vero Beach. The teams left in Region 1 are Mandarin and Lake Brantley–both undefeated–along with Apopka and West Orange. Getting to Orlando will be hard in this classification to say the least because all of those remaining teams are true heavyweights this season.

#2 Victory Christian
The defending 2A State Champions are off to a great start with a shutout of Deltona’s Trinity Christian. They’ll have to defeat Winter Garden’s Foundation Academy–a team that they lost to 34-28 in OT. If they win–they’ll be on the road to either Jacksonville or Tallahassee to face University Christian or North Florida Christian respectively. NFC are 7-4 this season, but a 5-hour bus trip is what it is. University Christian’s only three losses on the season are to Jacksonville Trinity Christian (11-0), Tennessee’s Brentwood Academy (10-1) and 1A-Dixie County (8-3) who just went down to Pahokee and defeated the Blue Devils in the Muck.

#3 Nature Coast/River Ridge
Doesn’t matter who wins this slugfest because in all likelihood–North Marion awaits either one of these teams. If River Ridge wins–they’ll host and if NCT wins–they’ll be on the road. These two teams are in Region 2–which means they’ll be on the road come State Semifinals time and the four teams alive in Region 1–are Tallahassee-Rickards, Wakulla, Live Oak-Suwannee and Jacksonville-Ribault.