The Palm Beach Gardens Gators travel to Homestead and face the South Dade Buccaneers on Friday night at Harris Field in a Class 8A state semifinal. The winner of this game will play the Apopka-Plant winner in the FHSAA Class 8A state championship next Saturday night at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.
Both teams in this contest have the shortest to drive for a game this weekend involving South Florida schools. Gardens has to go 110 miles from north Palm Beach County as the away team while South Dade gets to stay in the city limits of Homestead.
Palm Beach Gardens(9-4) has been considered an underdog in every playoff game they have played this year. They edged Park Vista 34-31 at home in the regional quarterfinal, handled Palm Beach with a 45-28 road win in the regional semifinal and upset an undefeated Miramar squad 12-10 in a dogfight at home. Nine of their last ten games have been decided by 12 points or less whether they won or loss.
J.P. Caruso will engineer their offense as the quarterback and he can run option along with throwing the ball. Running back Tommy Monday is expected to get the bulk of the carries for the Gators and A.J. Shipman will see an occasional handoff. Look for Caruso to connect with wide receiver Andrew Prince, Caleb Perez and Mario Brown on middle-range passes.
South Dade(12-1),who ride a five-game winning streak as they head into this game, have been victorious as the road team in three consecutive playoff games. They pounded Southwest 42-7 in the regional quarterfinal, got by Killian 13-7 in the regional semifinal and blanked Coral Gables 6-0 in the regional final.
The Bucs have a trio of wide receivers in Tyre Brady, C.J. Worten and Nathaniel Terry who can be dangerous downfield. Quarterback Khalil Render will attempt to get them the ball through the air.
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