Preview: Charlotte Fightin' Tarpons vs. Manatee Hurricanes
The Charlotte Fightin' Tarpons will be staying on the road on Friday to face off against the Manatee Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m. on November 10th. Charlotte will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings (they are ranked 271st, while Manatee is ranked 78th).
After soaring to 44 points the game before, Charlotte were a bit more limited in their game on Friday. They were dealt a 54-6 loss at the hands of Riverview Sarasota. Charlotte has not had much luck with Riverview Sarasota recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
The losing side was boosted by Brady Hall, who gained 130 total yards.
Meanwhile, while Manatee put up plenty of points on Friday, the same can't be said for Southeast. Manatee really took it to Southeast for the full four quarters, racking up a 49-0 win at home. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point Manatee had established a 35 point advantage.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Manatee to victory, but perhaps none more so than Andrew Heidel, who threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns while completing 78.3% of his passes, and also punched in a rushing score. Trayvon Pinder also deserves a shout-out for his three touchdowns.
Another reason for the win was Manatee's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. Alvoid Kennon was especially locked on to Southeast's QB and sacked him twice.
The opposite results left the teams with opposite records: Riverview Sarasota's victory pushed their record up to 6-4, while Charlotte's defeat dropped theirs down to 4-6.
Charlotte was dealt a bruising 46-7 loss at the hands of Manatee when the teams last played back in September. Can Charlotte avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
