Lake Minneola 19 Manatee 57 Final

[gatorman001]

This one when it was originally on the schedule, had all the markings of being a classic opener for both teams. Minneola had 4 of it 5 starting OL coming back 2 of which were highly ranked, its RB, a couple of WR's that had seen sginificant playing time and highly touted junior QB that would have been its starter. All of that is gone. The long time head coach at Lake Minneola was let go, his replacement left after aprox 5 days on the job and then there was massive defections from the team.......in fact Lake Minneola cancelled its spring football because things were in such disarray. Lake Minneola lost its classic game to LandOLakes 19-12 last Friday.

I see Laz has Lake Minneola as a +4 favorite, but his ratings at this point are based largely on prior year performances. I see this game looking a whole lot like last week's classic game against Hillsborough HS, it that the Manatee coaches should have every opportunity to empty its bench and play its reserves. at this point

I dont see Manatee really being challenged at all leading up to its trip to Lowndes County, GA week 3 of the regular season. Have lots of questions about the Manatee offense, and it not really seeing worthy competition leading up to that week 3 game cant be good. Manatee has talented WR's but I've noted before when defensive teams that have atheltic DB's match up with tight Man coverage, the Manatee WR's struggle with getting open. I dont see Manatee's little RB's being able to consistantly do much between the tackles against a good defense and of course the young OL to me is a good year away from being capable of being a force physically........this would have been a great game to get a accurate measurement on where Manatee is really at and make adjustments as necessary heading into the meat of its schedule............now however due to the circumstances not so much.

 

[MarkECannon]

With all the problems that Lake Minneola is having I expect Manatee to win somewhat convincingly.

 

[JonMHS]

Manatee wins this game even if Minneola was at full strength!! Manatee's offense will be one of the highest scoring units in the area! And we already know how good their defense is!!

Minneola - 7
Manatee - 45

 

[gatorman001]

Manatee vs Lake Minneola was just about what I figured (57_19 I believe was the final). There were some serious breakdowns in Manatee's pass coverage that repeated themselves a number of times for 3 long TD's and number of other times the Lake Minneola QB wasn't able to connect with wide open receivers, that the Manatee defensive coaching staff will need to work to get corrected. Was encourage by the blocking I saw when Manatee ran between the tackles, but hard to get real excited just yet because of the quality of the opponent

 

[twc2499]

Manatee needs to fix things in the secondary. They had some break down in coverage when Lake Minneola went to their spread offense. The good thing is it's all fixable and it is not a personal issue! I thought the offensive line played very well. They will continue to get better as the season goes on!

This week it's Southeast. Probably another running clock. After that Manatee will start playing some of the big boys on their schedule and that will be the true test. Win or lose these games will help make this team better as the season progresses. The goal is to be battle tested at the end of the season. Kinnan was well known for scheduling real tough opponents during Manatee's state title runs.