It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact Pinellas Park can now relate to. They were dealt a 55-26 loss at the hands of the Manatee Hurricanes on Friday. While losing is never fun, the Patriots can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 103rd, while the Hurricanes are ranked 12th).
Several Patriots players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Jaden Casanova, who threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 11.3 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 36 yards. Casanova has become a key player for Pinellas Park: the team is 6-2 when he posts at least three passing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Amari Caro, who picked up 162 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Manatee's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from KeiShawn Smith, who rushed for 179 yards and four touchdowns. Those 179 rushing yards gave Smith a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Andrew Heidel, who threw for 340 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 17.0 yards per attempt.
Pinellas Park's defeat dropped their record down to 7-4. As for Manatee, they pushed their record up to 8-1 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
Pinellas Park does not have any more games scheduled as of now. Manatee has already played their next contest, a 54-8 win against Immokalee on the 22nd.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
