KICKOFF: Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Warrior Stadium (5575 W. Lutz Lake Fern Rd., Lutz, FL 33554)
TICKETS NOTES: Palm Harbor University’s football team is away at Steinbrenner HS in Lutz on Friday at 7:30 p.m. (5575 W. Lutz Lake Fern Rd. Lutz, FL 33554). The only way to gain entry Friday is by purchasing tickets through this portal: https://www.hillsboroughschools.org/Page/5385
THE PREVIEW
Palm Harbor fans — a district title in football is on the line Friday night. Considering no titles were won from the mid 1990s of the school opening until last year’s team did it, that’s obviously a pretty big deal.
The Hurricanes (3-4) have faced a pretty tough schedule so far, and face a Steinbrenner team (3-4) that it hasn’t beaten since 2017, but one that has fallen by a combined score of 97-12 in its last two games. PHU needs to seize on the opportunity on Friday night, put this one away, and within moments of accomplishing that — it needs to become the biggest Largo fan ever.
Because if Largo (4-3) wins its home Class 6A-District 10 game against East Lake (1-6) and PHU takes care of Steinbrenner? The Hurricanes will have won their second consecutive district championship after never winning one in the previous 26 seasons of varsity football.
PALM HARBOR FOOTBALL SCHOOL HISTORY: Year by Year
Think the PHU is doing backflips and talking about championships right now? Nope.
That would be dumb. Not a damned thing has been accomplished yet. The program took it on the chin last Friday down at Boca Ciega and hasn’t won a game since knocking off Largo on the road on a late September Monday night, rescheduled because of Hurricane Helene. It’s been a weird year where the word momentum hardly applies.
PHU’s biggest strength is its run defense, and Steinbrenner’s biggest weakness is its run offense. If you do the simple math, you can see how that’s going to go.
Last Friday, Boca Ciega whipped the ball around for 227 passing yards — better than any other team this year had done against PHU. The Pirates saw something to go after and it worked well, particularly in the first half. In the second half? PHU fared better. Steinbrenner does throw the ball relatively well, but its starting quarterback has also thrown 8 interceptions (see chart below).
Steinbrenner’s defense has also given up 32 points per game.
There are definitely some areas PHU can work to exploit, but the boys are going to have to buy into what the coaches schemed this week. But if they do? They may be able to celebrate a bit on the quick bus ride home from Lutz on Friday night.
THE SPECS:
Palm Harbor (3-4) at Steinbrenner (3-4)
KICKOFF: Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Warrior Stadium, Lutz
MAXPREPS ALL-CLASS STATE RANKING: PHU – 191; Steinbrenner – 182
COACHES: PHU- Mike Mullaney (33-34 in 7th year); Stein. – Andres Perez-Reinaldo (69-60-1 in 13th year)
SERIES: Steinbrenner leads in the nine matchups, 7-2-0 all-time. PHU’s last win in this series was in 2017.
| PALM HARBOR (7 GMS) | STEINBRENNER (6 GMS) | |
| PTS PER GAME | 18.3 PG | 22.0 PG (in 7 gms) |
| PTS GIVEN UP | 17.3 PG | 32.1 PG (in 7 gms) |
| RUSHING OFFENSE | 175.0 YPG | 85.1 YPG (6 gms) |
| PASSING OFFENSE | 66.7 YPG | 163.4 YPG (6 gms) |
| TOP RUSHER | JAXON WILSON – 544 yds, 2 TDs BEN SATHAPORN – 175 yds, 1 TD | EMMANUEL ARANGO – 339 yds, 2 TDs |
| TOP QB | WILL SEIBERT – 393 pass yards, 6 TDs/3 INTs 231 rush yards, 2 TDs | MEMPHYS GARCIA – 1094 pass yards, 9 TDs/8 INTs |
| TOP RECEIVER | JAKE RENNERT – 182 yds, 12 rec., 3 TDs OWEN KOLLAR – 137 yds, 6 rec, 3 TDs | BRENAN LOWE – 327 yds, 31 rec, 2 TDs |
| TOP TACKLES | RYAN FUELLING – 51 tackles, 6 TFL ZACH HORNER – 27 tackles, 9 TFL KARTER ALLEN – 26 tackles, 10 TFL JOEY SILVESTRO – 24 tackles, 3 TFL WILL SEIBERT – 23 tackles CURTIS FISHER – 22 tackles, 5 TFL LOGAN RAPP – 20 tackles, 3 TFL | KASON POWELL – 58 tack, 5 TFL |
| TOP TFLS | KARTER ALLEN – 10 TFLs ZACH HORNER – 9 TFLs MICHAEL WILLOCK – 7 TFLs, 3.5 sacks | REECE SELLARS – 5 TFLs KASON POWELL – 5 TFLs |
PALM HARBOR TEAM DEFENSE (7 games) — 115.4 rush yards per game given up, 105.6 Pass YPG
