Manatee, St. Pete Gibbs take two different roads to playoffs

BRADENTON — Manatee and St. Petersburg Gibbs will be in the same spot tonight.

But each teams took different paths to get there.

Manatee (9-1) won its first seven games to clinch their 23rd playoff berth, though the Hurricanes missed out the District 10 title by losing to Venice on Oct. 30.

The Gladiators (5-5) dropped their first three games by a combined score of 120-44 before winning five of seven, including a resounding 41-13 win over St. Petersburg — which lost one game this season — on Oct. 9 in what amounted to the District 9 championship game.

Now both the Hurricanes and Gladiators meet at 7:30 p.m. today at Gibbs in a Region 3 quarterfinal.

“They’ve got good athletes, they spread the ball on offense and supply pressure on defense,” said Manatee coach Joe Kinnan. “They’re athletic, and they’ve got a big-time Division I player at defensive end.”

Kinnan is talking about Tim Jackson, who has received scholarship offers from schools such as Iowa State, Indiana, Kentucky and Auburn.

Jackson has received 13 scholarship offers, according to Rivals.com.

While Manatee’s offense, which is putting up 36.2 points a game and is fueled by quarterback Brion Carnes (1,825 passing yards, 21 passing touchdowns) has gotten most of the attention, the Hurricane defense has been solid.

Manatee is allowing 13.6 points a game — tops among area public schools — and its 243.8 yards allowed per game are second among area public schools, behind Southeast. Despite allowing 43 points to Venice, the most Manatee has allowed since the 2005 Class 5A state semifinal against Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, the Hurricanes limited five opponents to less than 10 points.

Darius White (93) and Taylor Shipley (86) pace the team in tackles, while Quinton Pompey has a team-best seven sacks. Tonight, they’ll try and corral Gibbs quarterback Josh Rembert, who has thrown for 1,550 yards and 17 touchdowns.

The winner of tonight’s game faces either St. Petersburg or Venice. And though a rematch with the Indians is possible, Kinnan isn’t concerned with any of his players looking ahead.

“Everybody knows that when you get to this level,” he said, “it’s a one-game season.”