Blakely leads Canes to victory

BRADENTON — Manatee’s head football coach kept it as simple as he could.

“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Joe Kinnan said.

What his Hurricanes had to do was win Friday’s Class 5A-Region 3 semifinal against St. Petersburg. In the eyes of Kinnan, as well the 7,000 or so fans that packed Hawkins Stadium, their best chance to do that lay in the hands of Mike Blakely.

That’s what Manatee did. And Blakely, a junior running back, obliged.

Consequently, the Hurricanes (11-1) defeated the Green Devils 21-7 and will play for the program’s 11th regional championship — and third since Kinnan returned to the sideline in 2005 — next Friday at Palm Bay Bayside, a 28-3 winner over Melbourne.

“We went back to old-fashioned Manatee football in the second half,” Kinnan said.

Dealing with struggles in the passing game — quarterback Brion Carnes completed 3 of 10 passes for eight yards — the Hurricanes kept the ball on the ground for the entire second half.

“I just felt that our best chance to win the ballgame was to line up there and hit them in the mouth,” Kinnan said, “and give the ball to Blakely.”

Blakely responded by rushing for a career-best 206 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries, icing the win with a 56-yard touchdown run with 1:44 left in the game.

“We couldn’t throw it, it was a wet night. We just had to keep the ball in my hands, I guess,” Blakely said. “It was a great time for me to step up.

“We knew (St. Petersburg) was a good team — we just had to come out and play hard against them.”

Blakely credited Manatee’s blocking, especially that of lineman Michael Duff and wide receiver Ace Sanders on the game-sealing touchdown, which sent most of St. Petersburg’s fans streaming toward the exit.

“It was just some good blocking,” Blakely said, “and good play calling (Friday night).”

There was some good defense, too. Manatee limited St. Petersburg (10-2), which averaged nearly 230 rushing yards a game, to 163 on the ground Friday and forced the Green Devils into three first-half field goal attempts.

They missed all three, including a 28-yarder that was partially blocked.

“Our defense stepped it up,” Kinnan said. “They had some yards between the 20s, but we kept them out of the end zone except for that one drive.”

Manatee now heads to Bayside (8-4) for a regional final.

Kinnan doesn’t care how they got there.

“It wasn’t a pretty win,” he said. “But we’ll take an ugly win to a pretty loss any time.”