Early losses spurred Plant to succeed

Plant and Bradenton Manatee opened the season against each other and they'll end it together on Friday night.

The Panthers (12-1) and Hurricanes (13-1) play for the Class 5A state championship at Orlando's Florida Citrus Bowl, 16 weeks after a preseason game at Dad's Stadium.

Manatee dominated the two-time 4A state champion Panthers, 49-33, in that Kickoff Classic, a game that wasn't so classic for Plant. It wasn't the welcome to Class 5A the Panthers had anticipated.

"They beat us fair and square in that game. They were better than we were," Plant coach Robert Weiner said. "We hope we're better than they are now - at least on Friday night."

Seniors on this Plant squad aren't used to losing. In four years, they've lost only four games. In the playoffs, they've lost just once.

So imagine what would happen to a group that, with the following Week 1 loss to Tampa Bay Tech, experienced back-to-back losses for the first time.

"That was unfamiliar territory for us," Weiner said of the losing. "They were really hungry. When we lined up to play Hillsborough (in Week 2), they were really hungry. But there's a difference between being hungry and being panicked and they were not panicked at all. They knew what they had to do to get better."

One way was to get healthy.

Starting quarterback Phillip Ely remembers that Manatee game. He watched the whole thing from the sideline. Ely sustained a lower back stress fracture over the summer that reared its ugly head right before the start of the season and kept him out of the first four weeks.

"I wanted to start my junior year off with a win," Ely said. "It was my first time with the job, so I was real disappointed I couldn't play. But I just had to get better quick, and come back."

Also missing were some defensive starters, including middle linebacker Mike Mirabella and safety Eric Dungy, and without them the Panthers' defense uncharacteristically gave up a lot of points and yards. Manatee wideout Ace Sanders carved up the defense with touchdowns of 65, 26 and 32 yards.

"After that, a lot of people who were slated to be starters, we gave other kids a shot," co-defensive coordinator John Few said. "When you do that to a senior, they react one of two ways. They either fold and react negatively to being displaced or they pick up their game and improve and then all of sudden everyone improves.

"And that's what happened with this team."

Since that loss, Ely has rejuvenated a balanced offensive attack, which is averaging 45 points per game in the playoffs. And the Plant defense has allowed an average of only 11 points per game and posted a shutout last Friday night at Lakeland, a team that had never been shut out in the playoffs before.

"There's a lot of different numbers on this roster that were not starting in the first game," Manatee coach Joe Kinnan said of the Plant team. "I think you can throw out what happened in the preseason."