A roundup of Southwest Florida high school events from Monday, April 27 through Saturday, May 2, 2026.
TUESDAY
Flag Football
Class 2A-Region 4 quarterfinals
Bishop Verot 21, Jensen Beach 0: After a heartbreaking loss to Bonita Springs in the Class 2A-District 13 title in a game they probably should have won, the Bishop Verot flag football team bounced back in a big way.
The Vikings (14-1) secured their first state playoff win in program history, scoring a 21-0 win over Jensen Beach at Sam Sirianni Field on Fort Myers High’s campus. Bishop Verot’s field is in the process of being redone, leading to the game being played on the campus of their longtime crosstown rival.
“I thought we played really crisp,” Bishop Verot coach Dave Villegas said. “I was worried. When you see teams from the other coast that are more established, that have been playing a lot longer than us, you just know what you’re going to get when you line up. The girls were like, ‘What are we going to see?’ I don’t know, let’s just find out when we get out there. And they did a great job with everything. They’re pretty gritty and tough. When the challenge comes to them, they just step up to it.
“Fort Myers were wonderful hosts for us. They were very accommodating, and they helped us out in a really tough situation. Many thanks to them.”
After forcing a punt on the first drive, Dinkel’s legs marched the Vikings down the field with a third down conversion. On first-and-goal, Dinkel connected with Caroline Ward (7 rec, 70 yards, 2 TD) in the back of the end zone, getting one foot down to take a 6-0 lead.
The Falcons (9-9) often took quick outlet passes on Verot’s soft coverage, with quarterback Natalie Tobiasz finding success early in drives. Sustaining it was another story, all but one of Jensen Beach’s drives stalled before midfield
The Falcon defense picked off Dinkel to prevent the Vikings from going up two scores, and got another defensive stop from Jayla Brinkley, who made her presence felt with three straight pass breakups to force a Verot punt.
The reigning SWFL Flag Football Player of the Year couldn’t be stopped forever though. Late in the second quarter, Verot got another score on the board from Dinkel to Ward again, who was left alone in the back of the end zone from three yards out. Grace Riley went full extension on the two-point conversion, carrying a 14-0 lead before halftime. Riley added eight flag pulls on defense at the cornerback position.
“She doesn’t miss flag pulls,” Villegas said of Riley. “She’s just so crisp. Our gameplan was to let them take the little stuff, and we’ll flag pull, we’ll flag pull, we’ll keep everything in front of us. Let’s just be good at flag pulling and running to the ball. They executed that plan really well. I was really proud of that.”
Jensen Beach crossed midfield for the first time right before halftime on a soft zone coverage and had a chance to score, but Ward batted down Tobiasz’s pass to keep the shutout alive.
After converting a fourth down run to end the third quarter, it didn’t take long for the Vikings to trigger the running clock. Dinkel’s 3-yard touchdown run capped off a day in which she completed 11 of 22 passes for 99 yards, rushed 13 times for 101 yards, and had six flag pulls plus a sack on defense.
They’ll need every bit of Dinkel’s 1,500-plus passing yards, 1,100 rushing yards, 48 total touchdowns, and 17 sacks to try and shock a Northwestern team ranked inside the top 10 statewide. The Bulls beat Estero 38-0 in their regional quarterfinal.
“We’re gonna go to Traz (Powell Stadium),” Villegas said. “And it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be a wild environment, going over to Miami to play against a really good team in Northwestern. They’ll just step up to the challenge like they always have. I have faith in them.”
— Alex Martin
Bonita Springs 6, Suncoast 0 (OT): Story to come…
— Dave Montrose
Northwestern 38, Estero 0: The Wildcats saw their season come to an end at the hands of the Bulls, who moved to 15-2 on the year.
Boys Lacrosse
Class 1A-Region 3 semifinals
Community School 12, Cardinal Mooney 0: The defense for Community School of Naples’ boys lacrosse team won individual matchups in its region quarterfinal game Tuesday night. And so that helped set up plenty of scoring for the Seahawks to advance in the state playoffs.
Pierce Szymanski scored three goals and the defense chalked up its second shutout of the season as the Seahawks easily defeated Sarasota Cardinal Mooney 12-0, advancing to the regional finals.
After a close first quarter, the Seahawks began to pour it on in the second quarter.
“I thought that our 1-on-1 matchups worked well,” said CSN coach Keith Lee. “The kids worked hard and didn’t get beat much. We were able to limit the amount of shots they (Cardinal Mooney) had and when they did get the shots, we could count on our goalie to make the saves.”
Cardinal Mooney (11-8) had won seven of its last eight games, but that momentum came to a screeching halt Tuesday night. That was in part due to the play of goalkeeper Michael Slusar, the reigning Southwest Florida Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year who is headed to Penn in the fall.
“The kids played well, and it’s exciting to advance,” Lee said. “Our face-off guy (Isaac Lyon) won the ball a lot tonight, so that way we didn’t have to play defense as much.”
Cardinal Mooney coach Jason Morales felt the Seahawks’ experience definitely paid off in the game.
“Community School is a senior-heavy team, and we’re pretty young, so it was a tough battle for us,” Morales said. “CSN has the athletes. They have the athletes who are very thin and they were able to substitute a lot of fresh legs, whereas we only had the one line.”
Morales felt just making it this far was major accomplishment for the Cougars.
“It’s always tough to stay positive. Our goal was to get to this point in the season,” Morales said. “We made it, but it was another level of competition that we had to play tonight. We’re not there yet, but we’re going to keep grinding.”
The Seahawks scored twice in the first period with goals from Szymanski and Burch Summers.
CSN made some breathing room in the second quarter with goals from Cale Austin with 3:35 left in the quarter and Summers two minutes later and Eli Felzer with 56 seconds left, resulting in a 5-0 halftime lead.
The Seahawks scored in the third on tallies from Szymanski, Isaac Lyon, Sean McNamara, Summers and Felzer to balloon the lead to 10-0. Szymanski and Joe Cedrone scored in the fourth to trigger the running clock.
CSN (17-3) has won ten straight going all the way back to March 20. The Seahawks are now 9-1 at home and will look to make it 10-1 when Canterbury comes to Naples in a rematch of the regular season, a game Lee’s squad came back and won 11-10 in overtime.
— Tom Corwin
Canterbury 17, Aubrey Rogers 3: After a 15-6 result in the district final in favor of the Cougars, Canterbury beat the Patriots 17-3 to advance to the Class 1A-Region 3 final.
Softball
Class 2A-District 12 final
Bishop Verot 16, Oasis 0: The Vikings mercy-ruled the Sharks, behind a pair of three RBI nights from Willa Pagnutti and Ashley Blexrud. Payton Breadmore allowed one hit and two walks with four strikeouts in the circle over three innings.
Class 5A-District 11 semifinals
North Fort Myers 9, Mariner 3: The Red Knights got it done behind a 2-for-3 effort from Kaliyah Williams, who homered, tripled, and drove in three runs. Audrie Florenzano went 3-for-3 with a triple, scoring twice. Williams kept the damage to a minimum in the circle, allowing five hits, three runs, and two walks while striking out six.
Fort Myers 12, Charlotte 9: The bats of the Greenies came through against the Tarpons, winning a shootout. Faith Fazzone, Gianni Torres, Adrianna Thorne, and Tori Fulcher all logged multi-hit games, with Torres and Sarah Buntrock driving in three runs apiece.
Class 5A-District 12 semifinals
Gulf Coast 11, Palmetto Ridge 1
Riverdale 9, Immokalee 1
Class 4A-District 13 semifinals
Barron Collier 17, Naples 0
Lely 8, Bonita Springs 6
Class 4A-District 12 semifinals
Estero 16, Dunbar 2
Port Charlotte 10, Cypress Lake 2
Class 1A-District 12 semifinals
St. John Neumann 19, Everglades City 4
Community School 9, Seacrest Country Day 6
MONDAY
Beach Volleyball
Class 1A-Region 3 quarterfinals
Bishop Verot 3, Indian Rocks Christian 2
Calvary Christian 5, Seacrest Country Day 0
Cardinal Mooney 5, First Baptist 0
Class 2A-Region 3 quarterfinals
North Fort Myers 3, Mariner 2: The Red Knights advanced to the regional semifinals against Charlotte with wins on courts 1, 3, and 4.
Class 2A-Region 4 quarterfinals
South Fork 3, Aubrey Rogers 2
St. Brendan 3, LaBelle 2
Archbishop McCarthy 3, Estero 2
Class 3A-Region 4 quarterfinals
St. Thomas Aquinas 5, Ida Baker 0
Softball
Class 5A-District 11 quarterfinal
Mariner 3, Cape Coral 2
Charlotte 10, Ida Baker 2
Class 5A-District 12 quarterfinals
Immokalee 18, Golden Gate 1
Palmetto Ridge 16, East Lee County 0
Class 6A-District 12 quarterfinal
Lennard 10, Gateway 0
Class 7A-District 12 quarterfinal
Sarasota Riverview 15, Lehigh 1
Class 4A-District 12 quarterfinal
Dunbar 18, South Fort Myers 7
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: SW FL Roundup: Tuesday flag football, boys lacrosse, softball results
Reporting by Dan DeLuca, Dustin B Levy and Alex Martin, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
