Audience poll: Who's the No. 1 high school football team in Florida after Week 3?

Well, an interesting high school football season keeps getting more interesting.

And a little more confusing.

Much like we asked after Week 1, who’s the top team after Week 3?

Is it Lakeland, which stunned Lake Mary with an 80-yard touchdown in the final minute to force overtime and win another big road game?

Is it IMG, which dominate Cocoa’s offensive and defensive lines in a 34-13 win on Friday?

Is it St. Thomas Aquinas, which routed back-to-back state champion Columbus 42-6 and may have the “best” loss, which came at the hands of Bishop Gorman (Nevada).

Is it Venice, which went on the road to beat Bishop Verot in a game that more closely resembled a basketball score? ( Final: Venice 71, Verot 56 .)

Is it Armwood, which outlasted Tampa Bay Tech and also has wins against Gaither (2023 regional champion) and Sumner (2023 regional finalist)?

Is it someone else ( Mandarin , Jones, Clearwater Central Catholic, etc?)

Vote for the No. 1 team in the state below.

Before you vote, here are six statistical notes to point out just how peculiar the first three weeks of the regular season have been.

Venice has allowed 138 points in three games. Venice also is undefeated and the unanimous selection as the No. 1 team in Class 7A. It’s also worth noting that Venice already has had to defend against the No. 1 wide receiver on the 2025 USA Today Florida Network top 100 (Tampa Bay Tech’s Dallas Wilson), the No. 1 receiver in the 2026 class (Miami Northwestern’s Calvin Russell Jr.) and the No. 1 quarterback on the 2025 top 100 (Bishop Verot’s Carter Smith).

Chaminade-Madonna, Plantation-American Heritage and Columbus are combined 3-6 heading into Week 4. Five of those six early season losses have come against teams that are ranked in the top 100 nationally, but this still was unexpected. Chaminade, American Heritage and Columbus went a combined 77-8 during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

Lakeland is 2-0 with wins at Miami Central, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3A, and Lake Mary, the No. 2 ranked team in Class 7A. Both wins were one-score games. Lakeland trailed or was tied the entire second half against Lake Mary and did not retake the lead until scoring first in overtime.

File this under Beware making too much of the Kickoff Classic: Eau Gallie’s offense struggled mightily in an 11-3 loss to Mainland in the preseason. (It was a bizarre scoring game that saw Mainland leading 4-3 with less than eight minutes left in the fourth quarter.) In its first three regular season against 2023 playoff teams Vero Beach, Rockledge and Heritage, the Commodores have outscored their opponents 90-27 with back-to-back shutouts.

The First Academy has opened the season with wins at Lipscomb Academy (Tennessee) at Edgewater and a dominant season opener against Treasure Coast on Friday. Lipscomb is a perennial playoff team that won state titles in 2021 and 2022. The last time Edgewater lost a regular season game at home is 2016.  Since the start of the 2018 season, only three other teams scored 42 points or more against Treasure Coast since 2018: St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaminade and Cocoa.

Mandarin is undefeated on the season but suffered a big loss when senior quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. went down with a lower leg injury in Week 2. Then again, it’s going to be really hard to beat the Mustangs if they don’t give up any points. Mandarin’s defense has back-to-back shutouts and has not allowed a score in 10 consecutive quarters.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Audience poll: Who's the No. 1 high school football team in Florida after Week 3?