Hurricanes Dominate St. Pete Gibbs

Final score: Manatee 56, St. Petersburg Gibbs 6

Recap: Wearing Mike Blakely's No. 7 with permission from the former Hurricanes standout, Leon Allen established himself as the team's No. 1 running back on the game's first two drives. Allen scored on a 25-yard shovel pass from Cord Sandberg and marched the final 25 yards on a 68-yard drive within the game's first 4:12. In addition to the shovel pass to Allen, Sandberg found Ryan Taylor from 26 yards out with 3:24 left in the second quarter. The visiting Gladiators only had two plays of 31 yards or more, including a 66-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Patrick Jones to Marquise Allen when the outcome had long been decided. Manatee also got three touchdown runs from Antonio Agurs.

Key play: Sandberg completed a pass to Anthony Lauro, who broke a few tackles en route to picking up 13 yards and a first down on a 3rd-and-13 from the Gladiators' 38 on the game's first series.

Star of the game: Allen, who had seven runs of 8 yards or more and finished with 95 yards on 12 carries.

Quotable: "We got to be ready to get out the gate, so our kids have to work hard this summer. We're going to demand a little more with what our expectations are (in the fall)." — Manatee head coach Joe Kinnan