Palm Harbor Falls at Boca Ciega in Lengthy Affair

THE GAME STORY

There are a couple of different ways to look at Palm Harbor’s 25-18 loss down at Boca Ciega on Friday night. We will pare it down to two options — the glass have full vs. the glass half empty.

First of all, Boca Ciega was clearly the bigger and more athletic team. Anyone who witnessed the game would concede that. And on top of that? The Pirates (4-3) did as good a job as anyone of countering PHU’s well-coached defense, slicing and dicing the Hurricanes’ (3-4) secondary with quick slants and quick hitches to move down the field — particularly in the first half. Defensively, the Pirates also were ready for the ‘Canes.

About 10 minutes into the second quarter, this one looked like it could be one of those 40-3 type blowouts in favor of BC — but that’s not what happened at all, even though anyone affiliated with PHU would also concede that the ‘Canes weren’t clicking on all cylinders. Pirates’ QB Dylan Nahra was stellar, making good decisions and throwing for 227 yards on 21-of-36 passing, accounting for three touchdowns. WR Walter Flournoy caught two of those TDs, while fellow WR Kyree Jenkins was also impressive.

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What the ‘Canes did well was scraping and scrapping their way into frustrating Boca Ciega in the second half. In fact, in the final 32 minutes of the ballgame, Palm Harbor outscored the Pirates 15-6, slowed down that passing attack somewhat, and frustrated Boca Ciega into several second-half penalties — allowing the ‘Canes room to breathe.

Nobody on the PHU coaching staff will point to the total body of work of this game as textbook Hurricanes’ football, but they should take solace in the fact that even with mistakes in the field — the first-half struggles to slow down the Pirates’ passing attack, the turnovers, and committing its own stack of penalties — they still had the ball late in the 4th quarter and were driving to tie up the game.

That should be exactly the motivator to take the ‘Canes into the final three games of the year. They’d already dealt with a curveball when it was learned late this past week that they’d have to move their home game and travel nearly an hour south instead, due to potential sinkhole issues at Hurricanes Stadium post Hurricane Milton. These field issues may create problems with scheduled home games with Dunedin and East Lake in the next three weeks.

Trust me, there were individual standouts abound in this one. Senior placekicker Mitchell Stricker nailed four field goals — including a career-long 48 yarder — enroute to setting the PHU career record for field goals with his 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th career FGs. The previous record stood for 24 years, held by Danny Shea (1999-2000),

And how about this statistic?: The top seven tacklers against Boca Ciega are underclassmen. Curtis Fisher, Ryan Fuelling, Khyree Dean, Michael Willock, Karter Allen, Chris Estep, and Logan Rapp are all back next year — and they all posted at least four tackles on the evening. Allen had 3 tackles for loss, while Dean had three passes defensed and a fumble recovery to post his best game as a ‘Cane.

On offense, senior RB Jaxon Wilson posted his third 100-yard rushing game of the year and really cranked things up when his team needed it in the second half — helping to grab control of the clock like the ‘Canes were unable to do in the first half.

Also, junior receiver/tight end Owen Kollar had the offensive play of the game late in the second quarter to give the ‘Canes breathing room. It came when senior QB Will Seibert put the football version of a jump ball into the right corner of the endzone and Kollar outfought the cornerback to come down with it. After a bit of hesitation, the referee signaled touchdown — and PHU’s momentum began building into the intermission.

And who can forget junior playmaker Jake Rennert? Along with being the team’s top WR, he also has become a stellar kick returner and adds that dangerous element on end arounds runs in the ground game.

Now, if the ‘Canes can put all of the positive above together and eliminate the mistakes of Friday night, they have a chance to win three in a row to close out the regular season, winning a second consecutive district title, and head to the postseason. The positives are there, even with the disappointment of Friday night.

“Bogie is a very good team,” PHU coach Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports. “Our defense played well enough to win. Offensively, we continue to commit way too many penalties and keep turning the ball over. The kids played hard, but I was out coached from the beginning to the end of that game.”

PHU travels to Steinbrenner in Hillsborough County for its next matchup next Friday (Oct. 25). It is a critical district battle for the Hurricanes.