High school football playoffs ‘23: Bolles, Mandarin, Trinity lead area Metro regional finalists

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s the third round of the high school football state playoffs and the area still has three teams standing in the regional finals. Bolles, Mandarin and Trinity Christian are all chasing berths in the state semifinals in the Metro division. Here’s a glance at Friday’s games.

Regional finals

Friday, Nov. 24

Region 1-4M

(5) Mandarin (9-3) at (2) Seminole (10-2), 7 p.m.

• Road here: Mandarin d. Winter Park, 29-16; d. Lake Mary, 36-10; Seminole d. Hagerty, 42-3; d. Apopka, 42-14.
• Other regional finals (overall classification seed in parentheses): Monarch (7)-Palm Beach Central (9); Sumner (11)-Tampa Plant (13); Miami Columbus (3)-Western (6).
• Where does Mandarin rank: The Mustangs are ranked 10th in Class 4M so they would have to travel for the state semifinals.
• Glance: Mandarin has played locked in and laser focused through its first two weeks of the playoffs. It controlled a previously unbeaten Winter Park in the opener, and then crushed the state’s top-ranked team, Lake Mary, last week. It still battled turnovers (three against the Rams), but defense was the reason why it was able to overcome those unlike when the teams met in the regular season. Lake Mary took advantage of five Mandarin giveaways in that game for a 34-16 win. Mandarin slowed down high-powered Rams QB Noah Grubbs, limiting the sophomore to his worst game of the season. Grubbs was coming off a 510-yard passing game and flirting with the state’s single-season passing record for TDs (56). But Mandarin dialed in on defense and didn’t allow Grubbs anything. LB Jackson Copeland continued his career year with a team-high 10 tackles and one for loss. CB AJ Belgrave-Shorter (8 tackles, INT) and DL Grant Pettigrew (9 tackles, 2 TFL) give Mandarin enforcers at each level. RB Tiant Wyche is a wrecking ball and in the conversation as the area’s top offensive player. He changed the game last week, finishing with 253 total yards and a soul-crushing 91-yard TD catch and run. Wyche is averaging — yes, averaging! — close to 10 yards a pop every time he carries the ball. Teams have to respect the passing of Tramell Jones and receiving ability of Jaime French, and Wyche has exploited that to show that he’s just as explosive.

Region 1-2M

(4) Bolles (7-5) at (3) Orlando Bishop Moore (9-3), 7 p.m.

• Road here: Bolles d. Bishop Kenny, 45-14; d. Raines, 14-7; Bishop Moore d. White, 42-22; d. Riverside, 37-35.
• Other regional finals (overall classification seed in parentheses): Plantation American Heritage (2)-Cardinal Gibbons (5); Berkeley Prep (4)-Calvary Christian (6); Miami Norland (1)-Miami Central (3).
• Where does Bolles rank: The Bulldogs have a No. 15 overall seed in Class 2M, so they are the lowest-ranked remaining team in Class 2M.
• Glance: Bolles beat rival Raines for the eighth time in nine playoff meetings, and used a defense that has had its struggles to do that. Despite some of those games this season where teams rained TDs down on Bolles, the Bulldogs do have plenty of talent on that side of the ball. LB Trent Carter (16 tackles last week) and DL Garrison Butler (11 tackles, 2 TFL) are two of the area’s best at their positions. LBs Troy Holloway and Simeon Caldwell combined for 21 tackles and a TFL against the Vikings. Offensively, Bolles didn’t do much against the physical defense of Raines. RB Emmett Grzebin (68 rushing yards, TD and QB DJ Moore (11 of 18 passing, 163 yards, TD) threw for half of those yards to WR Chase Collier (83, TD) as Raines focused on locking down top WR Naeem Burroughs. Despite giving up a season-high 35 points to Riverside last week, Bishop Moore has a tough defense and a very good two-way QB in Bjorn Jurgensen (29 passing TDs, 12 rushing TDs). Defensively, DE Jake Kreul and LB Aaron Reabe have combined for 25 sacks and 40 tackles for loss.

Region 1-1M

(2) Orlando Christian Prep (10-1) at (1) Trinity Christian (8-3), 7 p.m.

• Road here: OCP d. Providence, 28-25; Trinity d. University Christian, 28-22.
• Other regional finals (overall classification seed in parentheses): Clearwater Central Catholic (2)-Carrollwood Day (4); Chaminade-Madonna (1)-Cardinal Newman (3); True North Classical (8)-Archbishop Carroll (9).
• Where does Trinity rank: Trinity is ranked sixth in Class 1M and would have to travel for the state semifinals.
• Glance: A rematch of Trinity’s most challenging playoff game during its last championship season in 2021. The Conquerors went on the road an edged OCP, 29-21. The Conquerors held off a determined UC in last week’s opener, while the Warriors escaped Providence. By that metric, Trinity should be a pick to thump OCP, but it’s been an up-and-down season offensively for the Conquerors. Injuries and inexperience have caused several games to be closer than usual. RB Darnell Rogers has played through injuries to surpass 1,000 yards on the ground (1,015, 7 TDs). LB Cam Anderson has moved over to join Rogers in the backfield and has been a very good change of pace runner. He’s got eight rushing TDs and 353 yards on the ground while still leading Trinity on defense (97 tackles, 14.5 TFL). Another two-way player, WR/DB Kyle Boylston leads the team in interceptions (4) and is second in receiving (434 yards, 7 TDs). WR Miles Burris (529 receiving yards, 12 TDs) has been QB Colin Hurley’s favorite target. Half of Hurley’s TD total this season has been with Burris on the receiving end. Hurley has 1,807 passing yards and 23 TDs. From a schedule perspective, OCP, which was playing in the Sunshine State Athletic Association up until 2020, hasn’t faced nearly the competition that Trinity has. MaxPreps has OCP’s schedule strength measured at a 2.0 compared to a 25.1 for the Conquerors.