BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Bradford High School’s football team maintained the top spot in the Florida High School Athletic Association/MaxPreps power rankings for Region 2-2A and moved up in the rankings for Class 2A overall.
Rankings, which take record and strength of schedule into account, are updated weekly and will be used to determine playoff seeding and at-large qualifiers.
The four district champions in each of the four regions in 2A automatically qualify for the playoffs. Each region will also have four at-larger qualifiers.
This is the second week in a row that Bradford (9-1) was number one in Region 2. In fact, the top six remained unchanged from the previous week, with The Villages (8-1) in second, Clearwater Calvary Christian (6-3) in third, Cocoa (4-4) in fourth, Tampa Berkeley Prep (3-4) in fifth and Santa Fe (6-3) in sixth.
Titusville Astronaut (5-4) and Newberry (4-5) were seventh and eighth, respectively, but have now swapped places.
If the season ended today, Bradford would host a first-round playoff game against Astronaut. However, two more rankings will be released, with the final rankings and playoff seedings/matchups to be revealed on Thursday, Nov. 6.
The Tornadoes were ranked fourth in Class 2A overall, but made a jump over St. Petersburg Lakewood (8-1) to now claim the third spot behind top-ranked Sarasota Cardinal Mooney (8-1) and second-ranked Jacksonville Bolles (8-1).
When combining all classifications (1A-7A and Rural), Bradford is ranked 30th in the state.
Complete rankings can be viewed at www.fhsaa.com.
