Playoff Previews for FPF Junior

The FPF Junior regular is over. It is now time for the playoffs to start. I know I have talked about this a lot in recent weeks, but the FPF Junior playoffs are very unpredictable. It is not uncommon to see a bottom seed upset a top team. What that means is that no team can take anything for granted. Even if you had a fantastic regular season and dominated your division, you can still be knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. On the flip side, even a bottom ranked team can cause an upset. With that being said, I will jump right into my division by division playoff previews.

Playoff Previews:

Sophomore: The Bulls won in week 8 and thereby clinched first place in the conference. That means they will face the Colts in the opening round of the playoffs. The Bulls might come into this game overconfident. They had an impressive regular season while the Colts struggled. That overconfidence might be their biggest enemy. The Colts are not a team to take for granted. Their quarterback, Zack Mackey, passed for 900 yards in just the six games that he played. This team definitely knows how to move the ball. However, the Bulls also have a formidable offence of their own. They led the division with 271 points for. Ultimately, I think the Bulls will come into this one slightly overconfident. The Colts will take an early lead, but that will wake the Bulls up. I think the Bulls will overcome their sluggish start to book their seat in the finals.

In the other semi-final, the Panthers will take on the Wolves. These teams finished with an identical record and they actually play a very similar style of football. They both rely on their mobile quarterbacks to extend plays in the pocket. Both teams also tend to avoid the deep ball and rely on yards after the catch in order to move the ball down the field. These teams actually clashed last week and the Wolves narrowly won out. Despite the fact that the Wolves won last week, I think the Panthers will have the edge in this playoff game. I see the Panthers practicing every Monday at Stade de Soccer. I am sure that this team will have a game plan ready to combat the Wolves. While this game will be a very hotly contested affair, I think the Panthers will come out on top.

Atom: Flight School had a fantastic season. They won all eight of their games and only conceded 24 points in the process. That is a staggering 3 points against per game. They scored 229 points, nearly ten times more than they conceded. The maestro behind that fantastic season was the talented Jordel Springer. The elusive quarterback passed for over 1 000 yards. To give you an idea how impressive that is, the quarterback with the second most passing yards had 229. Flight School will face the Lakeshore Cougars in the first round of the playoffs. While the Cougars have been steadily progressing as the season progresses, they do not have the offensive fire power to rival Flight School.

The Jaguars and the 49ers will face off in the other semifinal of the Atom conference. All season, the Jaguars have made their intentions very clear. Their goal is to beat Flight School in the finals. However, before making it to the finals they will need to beat the 49ers and that is no easy feat. The 49ers have been improving at a staggering pace ever since they entered the league in the spring of 2019. From a group who did not really know what Flag Football was, they have matured into a dangerous team. They found their quarterback Rayan Stanfl. He knows how to protect the football and he can make an opposing defence pay with his legs. The Jaguars will need to find a way to keep Stanfl in the pocket if they are to have a chance of winning. These two teams played to a 6-6 draw in the last week of the season. However, in that game, the 49ers had a full roster while the Jaguars were missing some key pieces. While I do expect another very close match, if the Jaguars have their full roster, they should be able to win this one.

Mosquito: The Mosquito playoffs have been split into two brackets, Mosquito A and Mosquito B. The top four teams will duke it out for the grand honors in division A while the bottom four seeds will play in the consolation playoffs (Mosquito B). This separation was done to help promote parity in the playoffs.

The first semi-final in Mosquito A will oppose the top ranked Flight School 2 with the 4-4 McCaig Gladiators. The Gladiators got off to a very strong start this season. Until week 8, they had only lost to the two Flight School teams. In week 8, things went off the rails for the Gladiators and they lost their final two games. If they are to have any chance of beating FS2, they will need to step up in a big way. While FS2 did lose their first game of the season in week 8, I still think they are the best team in the division. I see them winning this one and moving on.

The other Mosquito A semi-final is between Flight School 1 and the Lakeshore Cougars. While the Cougars have been playing some great football in the past few weeks, FS1 is on a high after they defeated FS2 in week 8. I think they will carry over that momentum and win this semi-final.

Things are pretty wide open in Mosquito B. I am not sure there is a clear front runner in this bracket. Both the Buckeyes and the Diablos are talented teams. When they faced off in week 8, the game came down to the wire. The Grizzlies may also surprise some teams. They have an efficient passing game which gets the ball in their receiver’s hands. They also have one of the divisions best players, Harley Minzberg. When you combine a smart offensive with an explosive player like Minzberg who knows what can happen.

Pee-Wee: This division has been very close all season long. No team emerged as a dominant force. Finally, it was a week 8 win over the Gladiators which secured first place for Flight School.

Since FS are the top seed, they will be playing the Lakeshore Cougars in the first round. The Cougars are not a team to be taken lightly. Just two weeks ago, they dominated the Gladiators 55-12. This is a team who knows how to move the ball on offence and most importantly, they know how to play a smart zone defence. They average just 20 points against per game. If they manage to hold FS to just 20 points, I think they have a chance to win this one. However, FS has a high-octane offence. Ultimately, I think Flight School will solve their opponent’s zone defence and advance to the finals.

The Gladiators will be facing off against the AP Hurricanes in one of the most interesting semi-finals of the weekend. The Gladiators have been wildly inconsistent this season. They have played some fantastic games to beat Flight School while they have also had some disastrous performances. The Gladiator’s worst enemy is themselves. If they show up to this game with the right mindset, they should advance to the finals. If they don’t, the Hurricanes will be sure to take advantage and book their seat in the finals.

Bantam: The Bantam division has also been split into two pools in order to promote parity. The top four teams in this division are placed in the Bantam A bracket and they will compete for the championship. The bottom three teams are playing in the consolation finals. Since there are only three teams in the consolation playoffs, the Islanders have automatically advanced to the finals of Bantam B.

There are three teams with a legitimate shot of winning the Bantam A championship. Flight School are the favorites. They are 7-1 and have an impressive +181 points differential. This team is filled with elite level athletes. Most importantly, they showed character and rebounded from their week 5 loss to North Shore. The LCC Lions also have a championship caliber offence. If their defence can elevate their play to match the level of their offence, they will have a chance of winning it all. As for North Shore, they are the only team to have beaten Flight School so they have to be mentioned in the championship discussion. 

The team that will face the Islanders in the finals will be the winner of the match between the Bulldogs and the Diablos. This should be a very evenly matched game since the Diablos’ one win this season came against the Bulldogs. The key to success for the Diablos will be to avoid interceptions. While their quarterback, Viktor Lachambre has thrown for 1 000 yards and 17 touchdowns, he has also thrown 17 interceptions. I think the key to him throwing less interceptions would be to spread the ball more. As it currently stands, Racim Kaisbachammard has accounted for nearly half of his team’s receiving yards. While Kaisbachammard is a fantastic player, targeting one receiver so much becomes predictable and leads to interceptions. If the Diablos spread the ball, they will have a chance to win. If not, the Bulldogs will advance to the finals of Bantam B.

Midget: Despite Midget being a big division with seven teams, there will only be one playoff division. As the top seeded team, La Belle Province will receive a bye to the second round.

There a few teams that I could see winning this division. La Belle Province are the clear favorites in this division. They won all eight of their games during the season. They finished the season as the team with the most points scored and the least conceded. They are the complete package, they can score at will and have a stingy defence to keep opposing teams out of the endzone.      

North Shore have an experienced team and I definitely consider them a championship contender. They have an experienced quarterback in Kaelen Trepanier who knows how to win in FPF. He is surrounded by a cast of receivers he is very familiar with. The end product is a well oiled team that can contend in any game.

Another team that I believe have a chance to win it all are the Raiders. This is another experienced team. They are a very well coached group who know how to win in the playoffs. Their winter 2019 championship proved that. In 2019, they finished the regular season with just two wins and put in a playoff performance for the ages and won the championship. They might very well do the same this year.

The playoffs are just a few days away, so I hope everyone is starting to get excited!

If anyone has any comments about the article, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]

Best of luck to all the teams in the playoffs!