Prep football: Canes crack Rivals' top 50

Manatee is doing some serious damage against Florida opponents. And Rivals has taken notice.

The Hurricanes are ranked 50th in the nation in the latest RivalsHigh 100, which was unveiled today, up 28 spots from last week.

It's the highest Rivals has ranked Manatee since it listed the Canes at No. 36 in its preseason poll.

Manatee is 3-2, but has outscored its Riverview, Southeast and Braden River 159-12. The Canes' two losses have come to New Jersey's Don Bosco Prep, which reclaimed the top spot this week, and Maryland's Our Lady of Good Counsel, ranked seventh by Rivals.

Both teams are undefeated.

Manatee hosts Weston Cyrpess Bay on Friday.

Prep football: Canes still ranked despite loss

A double-overtime loss at Our Lady of Good Counsel last week wasn't enough to knock Manatee out of this week's PowerAde Fab 50 ESPNHS rankings or the RivalsHigh 100.
The Canes fell to No. 24 on ESPN'S list after opening the regular season at No. 8. Good Counsel moved up eight spots to No. 11.
Manatee fell three spots in the RivalsHigh countdown, landing at N0. 79.
"Manatee fans may blame a bad spot for its 24-17 loss," wrote the folks at Rivals. "But the team had chances to win and didn't."
Rivals had the Hurricanes at No. 36 entering the season, but dropped them following a 20-14 win against Delray Beach American Heritage in a Kickoff Classic.
Good Counsel moved up from No. 28 to 27 on Rivals' rankings.
Manatee hosts Riverview this week.

Prep football: Canes take a tumble in RivalsHigh 100

The Hurricanes didn't impress the folks at Rivals during Wednesday's Kickoff Classic.

Manatee dropped from No. 36 to No. 75 in the lastest rankings of the RivalsHigh 100 after its 20-14 win over Delray Beach American Heritage, a victory which Rivals described as "incredibly sloppy."

(Canes coach Joe Kinnan also wasn't too pleased with his team's performance.)
Manatee has a chance to make up some ground Friday when the Hurricanes open the season in Maryland against Our Lady of Good Counsel, currently ranked 27th by Rivals.

Prep football: Manatee ranked No 36 in RivalsHigh 100

The Hurricanes have cracked the RivalsHigh 100, landing at No. 36.

Dallas Jackson, a senior analyst at RivalsHigh, writes that experience will be Manatee's greatest strength, especially since injuries last season to guys like Mike Blakely, Drakkar Wilson and Quinton Pompey pushed a lot of players into action quicker than expected.

"With a demanding schedule this season," Jackson writes in Manatee's capsule, "...that experience should be prove to be invaluable."

Experienced starters such as defensive back Clinton Heaven and linebacker Darius White anchor a defense that lost three starters off the line, while running back Leon Allen, who was ineligible last year but rushed for 94 yards in the spring game, should help offset the loss of Blakely.

Wide receiver Anthony Lauro was effective when healthy last year, and defensive lineman Derrick Calloway, who appeared in just six games last year, has already earned a scholarship offer from USF.

And of course there is quarterback Cord Sandberg, who burst on to the scene as a sophomore last year and propelled himself right on to the national radar.

"The talent is there," Jackson writes, "and coach Joe Kinnan has done just about everything a coach can do in a career."

Jackson does point to Manatee's schedule, however, which includes games against national powers such as Our Lady of Good Counsel (Md.) and Don Bosco Prep (N.J.), as well as local rivals such as Riverview, Southeast, Palmetto and Venice.

"A team that can make a dramatic move up (or down) with its schedule," he wrote on RivalsHigh's Twitter page.

Manatee opens its regular season Sept. 2 at Good Counsel, which Jackson listed at No. 54.

Prep football: Manatee's Week 1 opponent ranked 54th in nation

(photo from washingtonpost.com)Our Lady of Good Counsel, which plays host to Manatee on Sept. 2 in Olney, Md., is ranked 54th on the RivalsHigh 100 countdown.
Led by receiver Stefon Diggs, No. 7 in the picture above, the Falcons jumped 29 spots after finishing last year ranked No. 83 by Rivals.
According to the Rivals' write-up, Good Counsel features 15 players with Division I offers, including Diggs, who is being courted by over 30 schools. The 6-foot-1 senior earned a five-star ranking from Rivals, which also lists him second in the nation among receivers graduating in 2012.
The Falcons went 10-2 last season.
Rivals began unveiling its rankings 10 per day July 25, and will list 50-46 and 45-41 today.
No area schools have cracked the list yet.

Prep football: Doubleheader heading to Hawkins Stadium

A year after playing out of state for the first time in program history, Manatee's football team is playing host to a similar event this fall.
The Hurricanes host Don Bosco Prep, a national powerhouse out of New Jersey, on Friday, Sept. 16. After that game winds down, another Jersey heavyweight, Bergen Catholic, will face either Tampa Plant or Cocoa.
Kickoff is tentatively slated for 6 p.m. for the first game and around 9:15 p.m. for the second one, said Hurricanes head coach Joe Kinnan.
"If you want to be nationally ranked, you've got to play teams outside the state," Kinnan said. "That's what it comes down to."
Halloy Boy Sports Marketing is running the event, and the plan for is for the four teams to meet again in New York City in 2012.
Manatee became acquainted with Halloy Boy last fall, when the Canes' opened the 2010 season during a four-game, one-day affair in Woodland Hills, Pa.
Kinnan said whatever money made this season will be rolled over to finance next year's doubleheader, meaning none of the teams involved will make or lose any money.
"But it will be a great experience for the kids," Kinnan said.
The Bosco Prep Ironmen went 12-0 last season - defeating Bergen Catholic to win their fifth straight state title - and have won 35 straight games. They finished the year ranked seventh in the USA Today Super 25 and sixth in the RivalsHigh top 100.
The Canes were ranked 32nd by Rivals.
Bergen Catholic went 10-2 last year, losing both games to Bosco, and finished 59th in Rivals' rankings.
Cocoa won the Class 2A state title and finished 29th last year, while Tampa Plant reached the Class 5A state final.
As for the Hurricanes, their schedule will be full of challenges. The Canes open the season in Olney, Md. against Our Lady of Good Counsel, ranked 83rd by Rivals. Then comes Riverview, Bosco and Southeast.
"We're going to have a muderous first four games," Kinnan said, adding this schedule may be the team's most difficult.
In Week 7, the Canes host Class 6A state semifinalist Cypress Bay.
"We're going to see a lot of new people on our schedule, people we haven't seen before," said Kinnan, whose Canes have reached the state semifinals in four of the past six seasons. "It's going to be exciting."