OPINION: The mark of a good young team is the ability to handle its business on the road — sometimes in a comeback fashion.
And that’s exactly what Palm Harbor did Friday night up the road at Tarpon Springs. The Hurricanes rallied from a seven-point deficit and scored 14 unanswered points late to knock off the Spongers 21-14 on Friday night. PHU is now 3-1 — the second-straight year for a 3-1 start. TSHS drops to 1-3, but played well — and has some young talent that could make future matchups between the schools a lot of fun.
“Coach (Jeremy) Frioud is doing a great job at Tarpon,” PHU head coach Mike Mullaney told PalmHarborSports.com after the win. “Tarpon was the tougher team tonight and probably deserved to win that game”
When it comes to the neighboring, age-old Spongers, PHU now leads the all-time series (dating back to 2003) — 7 wins to 6 losses. And the ‘Canes upheld a recent tradition, winning the fourth straight game against TSHS (2012, 2015 & 2016 prior).
PHU has now beaten the oldest football playing school (St. Pete) and third-oldest (Tarpon) in Pinellas County history. But again, beating schools that have played football since the leather-helmet days doesn’t help TOday.
Talking about present day? The game was very, very far from perfect. The PHU team knows it. For the second straight week, PHU won on the road, and came away knowing it was still way better than it actually played. This is a young group, and mistakes are to be expected. They have a third straight road game on Friday, Sept. 23 at rival Countryside — a team it beat last year, but will be clearly the biggest test of this three-game road stretch for a young team.
“I will give our kids credit for staying in the fight and finding a way to win, but we made way too many mistakes tonight,” Mullaney said. “We tackled as poorly as you can and made way too many mental and physical mistakes on offense.”
GAMEDAY BREAKDOWN
With the Hurricanes and Spongers dodging lightning bolts at the original kickoff time, the game was delayed and restarted after a 30-45 minute weather delay — and then PHU struck first. Junior running back Mykehl Boebert has emerged as one of the top threats (and surprises) in Pinellas County. He scored his 4th and 5th touchdowns Friday in the run game, a testament to him and his offensive line (Sr. Ken Quach, Jrs. Walker Danneman and Hunter Hewitt, and Sophs. Cortland Stricker and Zach Horner).
Boebert has taken the pressure off of talented LB/RB Gunner Fodor, who can focus mostly on redirecting opposing ball carriers in a forceful fashion (which he happens to be pretty good at). That’s a big deal with a Class 8A team like PHU that has to rely on a two-platoon rotation as a smaller school would. Freshman LB Alex Malyszko has also continued to show his potential on D, an example of what’s to come here.
Sophomore quarterback Will Seibert scored the game-winning touchdown early in the fourth quarter and continues to prove he can lead the attack in a mostly run-dominated offense.
“We need a good week of practice this week (ahead of Countryside) if we want a (fourth-straight) win next week,” Mullaney said.
For the record?: PHU has had three instances of a four-game win streak in school history, and the last 4-1 start was 2015.
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BMAC’S TAKE TO PHU
Young ‘Canes? You haven’t arrived yet, but man oh man are you showing signs of something special.
You’ve shown some scrap and a ton of spirit, but we’ll repeat — you’re not there yet.
Your coaches know best and gave a dose of tough love tonight, even after a road win. That’s not a bad sign, that’s a GOOD sign that they think you guys have a ton of potential based on what you’ve shown so far. If they’d thought you hit your ceiling against Tarpon Springs? They would have given you a pat on the back.
They didn’t.
What does that tell you about what’s ahead of you? Only you guys can control that, but you have a ton of potential. And guys — you only get one opportunity at this in life, and so far you’re doing some special things. Want to set the bar higher at your alma mater and surpass the best PHU football era that happened about 10 yrs ago? You all have shown a spark.
Can’t wait to see what this season — and your time here — produces.
NEXT UP: at Countryside, 7:30 p.m. – Sept 23
UPDATED LOOK AHEAD
Lots of potential and lots of challenges on this schedule lying ahead.
PHU SCHEDULE AND HOW THEY FARED FRIDAY
