The game was exactly what one would have expected if they looked at the results of the first eight weeks of 2022 play. Palm Harbor’s game at Seminole looked like it was going to be a good one, and in reality it nearly went to overtime.
Palm Harbor had to sweat it out, but pulled out the road win at Seminole 17-14 after the Warhawks’ field goal attempt to send it to overtime was unsuccessful with 6.5 seconds left. Winning season is within reach for PHU.
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“Overall, we were happy to get the win,” PHU head coach Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports.com. “But we know we have to play better next week (at rival East Lake). We are going against the best running back in the area (former PHU RB Luke Yoder, who transferred to East Lake in the offseason). So we need to fuel up and have a great week of practice.”
Though PHU will be a heavy underdog next Friday, the Hurricanes can very likely nab a state playoff spot if they’re able to knock off their neighborhood rivals.
More realistically? PHU is now eyeing its first winning season since 2016 — when none of the current PHU players were even in local middle schools. The 2016 team went 6-3, and the 2015 PHU team went 6-4. PHU has only had five winning seasons in its first 25 seasons of play. A win at East Lake (7-1) or at home vs. Dunedin (1-7) will clinch a winning season for a very young team.
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Friday night’s result against Seminole is the kind of clutch play the Hurricanes (5-3) have shown with the other three road wins they’ve produced in 2022. PHU has beaten Sunlake, Tarpon Springs, Sickles, and Seminole on the road by a combined 23 points. That’s not exactly the mark of a young team, that’s the mark of an experienced, older team.
It’s a good sign of what’s to come — in 2023, 2024, and even 2025.
Go figure that the only definitive win PHU has had was at home in September against St. Petersburg High (6-2) in a 27-6 win. St. Pete is a Pinellas County program that looks like it’s heading to postseason play — and continues to dominate its Tampa Bay competition, averaging 24 points per game.
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Once again, the defense led the way for PHU. With leading tackler and big-time offensive threat Gunner Fodor out for the year because of injury, along with fellow Jr./RB Mykehl Boebert, the team has still found a way. The ‘Canes improvised with a running game by committee. Starting QB and leading rusher Will Seibert scored both TDs on runs and hit some key passes, too — with clutch receivers Mason Kryk and Isaac Jeffre coming up with big plays.
“Offensively, we were way too sloppy,” Mullaney said. “We had too many penalties and missed opportunities on offense. We left our defense on the field way too long. I’m very proud of our young running backs (Jaxon Wilson, Alex Malyszko, etc.), but we need to cut down on self-inflicted mistakes.”
Again? It was the defense that got it done. What’s new?
Sophomore DL Brady Messick has become more and more of a negative-yardage monster every week when it comes to big plays. Freshman LB Alex Malyszko continues to lead like he’s an upperclassman, not a freshman with three seasons to come after this one. Malyszko has helped fill the gap with the team’s top talent, Jr./LB Gunner Fodor, out with injury (but Fodor will be back in 2023, folks).
EYEING A WINNING SEASON: PHU goes to Seminole thinking winning season
Along with Messick, and Malyszko, Alex Schmid, Jr. Logan Givens, Jr. Zavion Roberts, Sr. Drayton German and Sr. Justin Finley (coming off injury for his first snaps in 2022) really showed out in a game that needed PHU’s clutch play on ‘D’. And of course, Soph./PK Mitchell Stricker was also clutch, nailing his second career field goal and both PATs in a game where every point mattered.
“Defensively, the staff did a great job of putting together a defensive plan and making adjustments at halftime,” Mullaney said.
It was an impressive result, and it puts two things in front of PHU: Next week’s game at rival East Lake may be the biggest challenge of the year, but a playoff spot is clearly on the line. And the season finale at home on Nov. 4 is against a 1-7 Dunedin team –though the Falcons showed spunk tonight with a 3-0 overtime win against Tarpon Springs — could ultimately push the ‘Canes into only its sixth winning season in 26 years.
“I love the fight of our guys,” Mullaney said. “And we will need it next week.”
NOTE: Coach Mike Mullaney is now the winningest coach in PHU’s 26-season history with 21 career wins, though you’ll be hard-pressed to see him doing a jig because of it. Mullaney was tied coming into tonight with his defensive coordinator and close friend Matt Lepain, who in three seasons at PHU led the Hurricanes into arguably the best “era” they’ve had with 20 wins and two playoff appearances in three seasons. Mullaney was on staff with Lepain as an assistant during that time.
FINALLY, MY OPINION TO A PHU TEAM I THINK WILL FINISH WITH A WINNING RECORD:
My final take — to the young men who hopefully read this? You’re intelligent young men or you wouldn’t be at PHU. Your parents are intelligent, too — and they’ve busted their asses to make sure you go to school in an area like where you currently live in. Do you want to be a lemming and go elsewhere because maybe … just maybe … you might get to win 1 or 2 more games (and next year it won’t be like that, BTW) or do you want to be A PART OF maybe winning a school-record 8 games, or more?
It’s up to you — be trend-setters, don’t be another skid mark at another school.
And don’t listen to the BS that you can’t go anywhere if you’re at PHU — the NFL draft will beg to differ with you, along with many D-I programs who have found talent at PHU over the years. That rhetoric is the same crap you hear from any rival program who wants to snag the top talent from your backyard school now that free agency is rampant in HS sports the same way it is at higher levels MUTE IT. It’s not true.
Remember — though it should ALWAYS be your choice where you play (it IS your life) … it speaks louder about YOU if you show leadership and loyalty and stick with your brothers. Instant gratification rarely works out, just ask NFL scouts and CFB coaches.
College coaches (and even pro scouts) have said to us in the media for years that transfers immediately send up a red flag about commitment. NFL scouts treat it with padded gloves too, because they wonder if “this guy” will be a headache in a million-dollar world like they were in HS and college when $$$ wasn’t involved. Again, I’m just passing on what I’ve learned in my career.
Pro and College coaches wonder the same thing — trust me. Loyalty to your home team? It is a bonus, intangible poker chip in the recruiting game — “this guy stuck around with the kids he grew up with“
And intangibles in the college and pro game matter.
So stick around, PHU studs. Why don’t you be the pioneers to set the bar higher in 2023. And for the PHU seniors who’ve taken their lumps this year to make this happen? You unselfish seniors? You deserve medals IMO. You’re the ones who have paved the way, playing two ways, taking your lumps and not getting the credit when you’ve clearly shown your leadership as a senior class.
You 2023ers deserve a ton of credit for being willing to go both ways to make this young team a success. They will ALWAYS be indebted to YOU, and lets hope they understand that — and if they don’t, they aren’t the talented underclassmen I thought I was looking at, for sure.
Hey players, want to be a part of something special? You already are getting there, but you’re miles from the promised land. But you’ve begun to blaze a trail as a PHU pioneer. Don’t quit doing that.
Don’t be a refugee that joins somebody else’s “story” midstream. Lock arms with your brothers and create your own story, one you’ll never forget. When you’re my age (late 40s) you’ll be glad you did.
It begins now. Right up the street. In your backyard.
