Thoughts, reflections, etc. - An evaluation through 3 rounds and more

Now, onto football.

Class 5A
# It's down to Destrehan at Westgate and Acadiana at Ehret. A chance for two local teams in the finals - which would be a rematch - and a chance for no local teams.

I'll start with Destrehan. I was told that River Parish schools have a tendency to choke early on in the playoffs. The Fighting Wildcats are putting that theory to bed. After struggling - and by struggling, I mean not winning by 28 points or more - in the first round, Destrehan has rolled over two very good opponents. It's been different every week, too. Against Carencro, the defense stood out. Against St. Paul, the special teams were huge, what with three blocked punts.

Westgate comes from the same district as Carencro, and, in fact, lost to Carencro by 20 points on the penultimate week of the regular season. Don't let that fool you. Westgate has taken out three good teams to get to the semis. This one should be good. I'll give my thoughts on who wins later in the week.

And then there's Ehret's game against Acadiana. This could be quite the matchup. Both had three-game losing streaks at various times during the regular season. Acadiana was getting national recognition before it's losing streak, while Ehret found itself after head coach Billy North came back from kidney stone troubles.

#In the final four, you have the No.1 seed, the No. 28 seed, the No. 14 seed and the No. 7 seed. This might just be the toughest division. If you're going by seeds, 5A had 12 "upsets," where lower-seeded teams won. 1A had the next hightest total at nine, but five of those wins were by two teams (Desire Street at 3 and West St. John at 2).

In 5A, Westgate came through with with three of the wins, and can pull of a fourth Friday. While you may be surprised at Ehret's entrance into the semis, you shouldn't be, at least according to seeds. The Patriots, seeded 7th, have beaten No. 26 Slidell, No. 10 Byrd and No. 18 Mandeville.

Class 4A
# The surprise isn't that Shaw is in the semis; rather, it's that the Eagles will face Westbank rival O.P. Walker for a chance to get back to the Superdome. Shaw beat O.P. Walker 34-0 on Sept. 29. That was before the Eagles went through a spell of injuries on defense, and before Walker's Tyrone Duplessis decided to make an even bigger name for himself. In the past three playoff games, Duplessis has run for more than 200 yards in each, and is nearing the 700-yard mark, if he's not passed it yet. This should be a good game.

# We're one game away from a rematch in the Dome between Shaw and Bastrop. Shaw needs to be careful. Though it has won 27 of its past 28 games, that lone loss was to Bastrop. Get caught looking ahead to a potential rematch, and it could fall one game short.

# This class basically held close to form. You've got a 1 vs. 20 and 6 vs. 2 in the semis. It's not a 1 vs. 4 and 3 vs. 2, but it's certainly close. And three of the eight "upsets" were dealt by No. 20 O.P. Walker.

Class 3A
# No local flavor in this one thanks to Redemptorist knocking out defending champs Lutcher. But that one went to form. Redemptorist was No. 4 and Lutcher was No. 5. In fact, the entire top half of the draw went as it was supposed to. All higher seeds won. In fact, of the five upsets, Patterson came up with one and the team Patterson beat to get to the semis - St. Louis - had two of the upsets.

# Westlake (13-0) earned a No. 3 rating by virtue of an average schedule. Its semifinal against Patterson should be interesting. Westlake's opponents were a combined 70-76. For Patterson (10-3), the road was tougher, though not much. Its opponents were 75-71. Read into that what you will.

Class 2A
# This is the only division where the seeds were right. No.'s 1-4 all made the semis, setting up a dream matchup of No. 1Curtis vs. No. 4 Evangel. Evangel is the three-time defending champion, albeit in different classifications. It won the Class 5A championship in 2004, and a 1A title in 2005 and 2006. Curtis, too, is a three-time defending champ, winning 4A in 2004 and 2A in '05 and '06. One team is going to have its Dome streak snapped.

# As everyone talks about the Curtis-Evangel game, it seems some people are forgetting about St. James, which is steadily marching towards the Dome itself. St. James hasn't been tested since beating Curtis 16-14 on Oct. 26. There's no doubt that St. James would love a rematch with Curtis, if not only to show people the first win wasn't a fluke. Curtis, took, wants that rematch.

Class 1A
# Watch out for Desire Street. While it hasn't necessarily been impressive the entire season, it's certainly a good team. Then again, it's playing South Plaquemines for a spot in the 1A finals. Yes, the same South Plaquemines team that hasn't score fewer than 47 points since Sept. 22, and has scored at least 70 in two games this season. The Canes are on fire, and I certainly wouldn't want to play them. I just don't seen anyone beating them the way they're playing. I've been wrong before, though.

Handy Blog Semifinal Picks
And finally, the semifinals picks. If you'll recall, I asked that you, the reader, play along and guess the final four for each division way back at the beginning of Nov. 5. Well, the semis are here, and here's how you did:

Me: 10 right picks Destrehan, Shaw, Bastrop, Parkview, Curtis, Evangel, St. James, Calvary Baptist, South Plaq., West St. John

J.A. Borne: 7 Shaw, Bastrop, Curtis, Evangel, St. James, Calvary Baptist, West St. John

Ron Held: 9 Shaw, Bastrop, Parkview, Redemptorist, Westlake, Evangel, Calvary Baptist, St. James, South Plaq.

PrepGuru: 8 Shaw, Bastrop, Westlake, Curtis, Evangel, St. James, Calvary Baptist, South Plaq.

SoccerFreak: 10 Shaw, Bastrop, Parkview, Redemptorist, Westlake, Curtis, Evangel, St. James, Calvary Baptist, South Plaq.

Professor: 12 Destrehan, Shaw, Bastrop, Parkview, Redemptorist, Curtis, Evangel, St. James, Calvary Baptist, Ouachita Christian, South Plaq., Desire Street

Professor, you've got dinner on me. Let me know when is good. Congrats on the win. You owned us in the regular season, and now you own is in the postseason. Well done.

Etc.
Please, let me know what you, the reader, think about the semifinals. Give us some insight and some thoughts.

Comment? Question? Leave a comment below or email me at bhandwerger@wwltv.com