Numbers Game: Palmetto High comes up short in big football game, again

It's the final week of the high school football regular season in Florida, but playoff berths were decided last Friday.

While Southeast is enjoying a return trip to the postseason, Palmetto failed to defeat Venice and had its playoff appearance streak snapped.

At Numbers Game, we'll dissect playoff figures more in depth next week. But we aren't steering clear from dabbling a bit. Plus, the Manatee-Southeast rivalry is rekindled.

So let's dig into some Week 11 digits!

.250

Palmetto's winning percentage in big games -- defined as playoff games, against rival Manatee and contests for district titles and play

off berths -- since the Tigers' 2011 state semifinal run following last week's 45-10 pasting at the hands of host Venice. That ended Palmetto's playoff streak at five consecutive seasons under head coach Dave Marino. The Tigers have suffered an extended hangover effect stemming from the 356 rushing yards Duke Johnson (now with the Cleveland Browns) tallied in the Class 5A semifinal at Harllee Stadium when he led Miami Norland to a 35-27 victory, a game his Vikings trailed by 20 points in the first half.

Since that game, Palmetto was trounced 62-0 in 2012 by Manatee in a game pitting the No. 1-ranked Tigers in 5A against the nation's top-ranked team, the Hurricanes. The Tigers also failed to win a district title against Southeast that same season. Later, they dusted off Auburndale in the playoffs before a narrow, 17-14, defeat at Lake Wales in the second round. In 2013 and 2014, the club went a combined 9-10 in the regular season that yielded zero district titles and back-to-back first round playoff exits.

4

For the second straight season, four area teams are playing postseason football after Southeast secured a playoff berth last week. With Palmetto's playoff streak concluding at Venice, the area's second-longest postseason appearance streak belongs to Cardinal Mooney, which has qualified for the last three seasons. Manatee holds the longest current streak with seven straight appearances. The last time Manatee County didn't see a Florida High School Athletic Association playoff berth was in 1996, while 1980 is the last year the area didn't see a team in the postseason. Southeast's inclusion marks the 27th time the Seminoles will enjoy playoff football, which is two behind the Hurricanes for the county lead.

26.62

Manatee's average margin of victory in the Canes' current 29-game winning streak over county foes. We bring that up, because the last program to knock off Manatee in the county was this Friday's opponent, Southeast. The Noles beat the Canes, 28-21, in August of 2006. Since then, Manatee has walloped county opponents, producing 38.06 points per game. The closest anyone has come was this year's Palmetto squad, which fell 36-35 after Nick Null booted Manatee to victory on a last-second field goal. Other close calls: 16-14 over Southeast in 2008, 30-26 over Southeast in 2009, 14-7 over Braden River in 2009, 31-24 over Southeast in 2010 and 29-26 over Palmetto in 2011. The Seminoles and Hurricanes meet for the 34th time this week, with Manatee holding a 19-14 edge in the all-time series.

742

Approximate roundtrip mileage for Saint Stephen's is traveling for Sunshine State Athletic Conference playoff games so far. The Falcons went to Lecanto Rivers Christian, where quarterback Fred Billy tallied seven touchdowns (five rushing) to lead Saint Stephen's to a quarterfinal victory last Friday. This week is a trip to Boca Raton Christian in a semifinal tilt. The winner goes to Oviedo, which is about 135 miles from Saint Stephen's, for the 2015 Florida Bowl on Nov. 14. Saint Stephen's offensive lineman Jake Westberry (first team), safety Lethario Jones (second team) and punter/kicker Alex Virgilio (second team) were named to the SSAC All-Conference teams recently, too.

Jason Dill, sports reporter, can be reached at 745-7017 or via email at jdill@bradenton.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason__Dill and like his Facebook page at Jason Dill Bradenton Herald.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Numbers Game: Palmetto High comes up short in big football game, again."