The 2024 regular season is over for high school football teams as they now head to the playoffs.
One team has dominated The Prep Zone Power Poll for the last half of the regular season, and that team is the Nease (Ponte Vedra) Panthers. They find themselves as a nearly unanimous No. 1 team in the final regular season all-classification regional rankings.
Nease (9-0) finished a perfect regular season by outlasting RV (received votes) Bartram Trail (St. Johns), 56-42, in a game made up from a postponement due to Hurricane Helene. The Panthers are ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and are the overall No. 1 seed in the classification, according to MaxPreps.
Nease opens play in a Region 1-6A quarterfinal this Friday against Tate (Cantonment). The Panthers picked up nine of the 10 first-place votes this week.
Another unbeaten team, Raines (Jacksonville), is No. 2. The Vikings (9-0) also finished a perfect regular season by blanking Atlantic Coast (Jacksonville), 48-0. Raines opens the 3A playoffs as the No. 1 seed in Region 1 and hosts Bay (Panama City).
St. Augustine is at No. 3. The Yellow Jackets (8-1) finished off their regular season with a 38-26 win at No. 12 Mandarin (Jacksonville). St. Augustine will host RV Columbia (Lake City) in a Region 1-4A quarterfinal matchup this week.
Buchholz (Gainesville) moves up a spot to No. 4. The Bobcats (7-3) closed out the regular season by handing 1A No. 4 Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach) its first loss of the season, 14-7. Buchholz earned the No. 2 seed in Region 1-6A behind Nease, and opens up at Citizens Field in a region quarterfinal game against Evans (Orlando). Buchholz received the other first-place vote.
Bolles (Jacksonville) rounds out the top five. The Bulldogs (8-1) are the No. 3 seed in Region 1-2A and host Taylor County (Perry) on Friday.
Vanguard (Ocala) leads off the second five. The Knights (9-1) earned the No. 2 seed in Region 2-4A and will open play in the region quarterfinal against Leesburg.
Bradford (Starke) is at No. 7, University (Orange City) at No. 8, Hawthorne No. 9 and Newberry slipped into the top 10 at 10th. University (8-2) dropped a game to No. 11 Spruce Creek (Port Orange) but is the No. 3 seed in Region 1-7A and opens up at home against Winter Park.
Bradford (8-1) is the No. 2 seed in 2A-Region 2 behind Cocoa, and the Tornadoes host The Villages in a first-round matchup. Newberry is the No. 3 seed in that region and will host Palatka.
Hawthorne is the top seed in the rural classification. The Hornets (7-1) host Branford to open up defense of their back-to-back titles.
Teams in the Mainstreet Daily News area in the second 10 are No. 16 Chiefland and No. 17 Union County (Lake Butler). Chiefland wrapped up their regular season at 9-1, scoring in the final minute of the game to knock off previously unbeaten Union County, 30-29, and then winning a makeup game at Trenton early last week, 39-6.
The only team new to the poll this week is Trinity Christian (Jacksonville). The Conquerors (7-3) finished their regular season by beating Fletcher (Neptune Beach), 35-21, and is the No. 2 seed in Region 1-1A. Trinity Christian hosts P.K. Yonge (Gainesville) to open up the 1A playoffs.
The Prep Zone Power Poll ranks the top 20 high school football, girls basketball, boys basketball, softball & baseball teams (regardless of FHSAA classification) across 26 counties in North Florida (Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Hernando, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Levy, Madison, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, Sumter, St. Johns, Suwannee, Taylor, Union & Volusia counties). It is voted on weekly by sportswriters and sportscasters and it is powered by Anytime Fitness of Gainesville.
THE PREP ZONE POWER POLL – 2024 FOOTBALL POLL #12
(School, followed by classification, first-place votes, current record, and total voting points)
Teams in bold are inside the Mainstreet Daily News coverage area
1. Nease (Ponte Vedra (6A) (9) (9-0) – 199
2. Raines (Jacksonville) (3A) (9-0) – 189
3. St. Augustine (5A) (8-1) – 177
4. Buchholz (Gainesville) (6A) (1) (7-3) – 164
5. Bolles (Jacksonville) (2A) (8-1) – 161
6. Vanguard (Ocala) (4A) (9-1) – 142
7. Bradford (Starke) (2A) (8-1) – 135
8. University (Orange City) (7A) (8-2) – 130
9. Hawthorne (Rural) (7-1) – 121
10. Newberry (2A) (8-2) – 99
11. Spruce Creek (Port Orange) (7A) (7-3) – 88
12. Mandarin (Jacksonville) (6A) (7-3) – 84
13T. Madison County (Rural) (6-3) – 68
13T. Ponte Vedra (5A) (8-2) – 68
15. Flagler Palm Coast (7A) (9-1) – 53
16. Chiefland (Rural) (9-1) – 51
17. Union County (Lake Butler) (Rural) (8-1) – 37
18. Oakleaf (Orange Park) (6A) (7-3) – 35
19. Springstead (Spring Hill) (5A) (8-2) – 29
20T. New Smyrna Beach (4A) (8-2) – 14
20T. Trinity Christian (Jacksonville) (1A) (7-3) – 14
Also receiving votes: Dunnellon (3A) (7-3) – 10; Eastside (Gainesville) (3A) (7-3) – 9; Columbia (Lake City) (4A) (5-5) – 8; Bartram Trail (St. Johns) (6A) (4-6) – 5; Fleming Island (Orange Park) (5A) (7-3) – 5; Suwannee (Live Oak) (3A) (4-6) – 3; Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) (3A) (7-3) – 1.