Palm Harbor’s football team will jump on the bus tonight to embark on a 15-minute road trip up to Tarpon Springs HS — the shortest trek to an away game this year. It kicks off at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at GoFan through this link (cash is not accepted at the gate): https://gofan.co/app/school/FL5995
Tarpon Springs (1-0) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the beginning of football at the school, and the Spongers have a formidable team for the special season. Palm Harbor (0-1) is coming off a tough loss to Calvary Christian and is injury-riddled, particularly on the offensive line — but the Hurricanes did beat Tarpon Springs in the varsity portion of May’s spring football game.
Last fall, Tarpon Springs nipped PHU at Hurricanes Stadium, winning in the final seconds after a desperation bomb actually worked. Final score? Tarpon Springs 22, PHU 21. It would be one of only two regular-season losses for PHU.
The Spongers are formidable and likely are one of the toughest teams the ‘Canes face all year. The two teams are knotted 7-7 all-time in their 14 meetings.
“Tarpon is the second-best team in Pinellas County (behind CCC), and they are probably a third or fourth-round playoff team,” PHU coach Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports.com. “They have no flaws on offense … they are going to average 30-40 points a game this year. Defensively they are big and physical and have numerous athletes in the back end that make it difficult to throw against.”
As is usual with any high school team, PHU learned a lot from its first game last week. The ‘Canes struggled on offense but made plays on defense — most notably by Zach Horner on the defensive line. He starts on both sides of the ball for PHU.
“For us, even though the score didn’t show it, we made some strides defensively last week,” Mullaney said. “The problem is the offense. You can’t get your first down in the 3rd quarter and expect to have success. We have a long way to go. I must do a better job of preparing the team.”
