The Pinellas Park Patriots will head out to take on the Manatee Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
If Pinellas Park beats Manatee with 49 points on Friday, it's going to be the squad's new lucky number: they've won their past two matches with that exact score. Pinellas Park blew past Braden River, posting a 49-13 victory. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 133rd, while the Pirates are ranked 355th), the result on Thursday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Jaden Casanova had an outrageously good game as he threw for 240 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 passes, and also rushed for 45 yards and a touchdown. Pinellas Park is 6-1 when Casanova posts three or more passing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise. Zahmir Mcneil handled things on the ground, rushing for 128 yards and a rushing touchdown.
Pinellas Park didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Anthony Roman, Ray Vega, and Kaiden Nobles picked up one apiece. Roman is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last 11 games he's played dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Manatee waltzed into their matchup back in October with four straight wins... but they left with five. Their defense stepped up to hand the Pirates a 41-0 shutout.
A big part of Manatee's win came down to the chemistry between Andrew Heidel and his top target Jalen Bryant. Heidel threw for 293 yards and five touchdowns while completing 81.8% of his passes while Bryant picked up 119 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Keith Smith was another key player, rushing for 68 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries.
Pinellas Park pushed their record up to 7-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 40.4 points per game. As for Manatee, their record is now 7-1.
Pinellas Park suffered a grim 34-10 defeat to Manatee in their previous meeting back in September. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Heidel, who threw for 124 yards and four touchdowns on perfect 10-for-10 passing. Now that Pinellas Park knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
