Golf icon Arnold Palmer leads this week’s sports numbers

It’s a somber edition of Numbers Game this week. There are plenty of fun digits to examine from Manatee County’s high school football scene, but we’d be remiss not to look at some numbers from a legendary sports figure’s career.

Golf icon Arnold Palmer’s passing late Sunday was the latest legend to pass away this year.

So we’ll touch on The King, while also crunching the weekly high school football numbers.

Here we go:

31

Percentage of tournaments that Arnold Palmer won from 1960-63, which is one of the most dominant four-year runs in PGA Tour history. Palmer — who won seven major championships — had 66 top-10 finishes and won 29 times during those four years. His last major title in 1964 at Augusta National also made Palmer the first four-time winner of the Masters.

13

Takeaways for Palmetto’s defense through five games this season. The Tigers have eight fumble recoveries and five interceptions. That defense also has three of their 15 touchdowns. Palmetto’s offense came together against Bayshore last Friday with six scores, which featured the fourth different starting running back this fall. Using the committee approach, Paco Garcia (six carries for 66 yards) became the latest to start in the backfield. He joins Elijah Davis (two starts), Johnny Jones (one) and Corian Brown (one) as Palmetto starting running backs in 2016.

5

First-half passing touchdowns for Braden River quarterback Louis Colosimo. The IMG Academy transfer produced a huge game for the Pirates in Leesburg, where they routed the Yellow Jackets 55-7. It was a season-high point total for Braden River, which is averaging 41 points per game. The defense, which returned several key members off last year’s state semifinal team, has allowed 28 points all year and limited Leesburg to 16 total yards of offense in the first half last Friday.

552

Among the 749 total yards that Bradenton Christian’s defense allowed last Friday, the bulk of it came from Deltona Trinity Christian quarterback Amorie Archibald. He gashed the Panthers for 214 rushing yards on 16 carries and passed for 338 yards. Generating 74 percent of Trinity’s offense, Archibald had a hand in six scores — three rushing and three passing touchdowns — in the 57-35 victory over BCS, which is still searching for its first win in 2016.

4

Touchdowns in the last two games for IMG Academy’s Tre McKitty. The tight end from Wesley Chapel is an Oregon commit and is starting to explode offensively for the Ascenders. Last year, he recorded one catch with zero touchdowns as a backup to Isaac Nauta, who now plays at Georgia. This season, he has 13 receptions following Friday’s four-catch, two-touchdown performance against Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson, which saw IMG pitch its first shutout since Oct. 2015.

6

Area games this Friday with playoff implications. They’re all district matchups with Southeast traveling to Arcadia DeSoto in a game against league unbeatens in Class 5A-District 11, while Manatee looks to remain unblemished in 8A-6 after a bye week. Cardinal Mooney, a playoff team like the Seminoles and Hurricanes last year, begins district competition at Clearwater Calvary Christian.

However, this is the last year utilizing the district champion and runner-up format for playoff berths following the Florida High School Athletic Association’s Board of Directors’ vote to approve a new playoff format starting in 2017 at its meeting in Gainesville on Monday.

This story was originally published September 26, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Golf icon Arnold Palmer leads this week’s sports numbers."