Canes must wait another year for title shot

ORLANDO
The stadium clock blinked down the final seconds of the season, but the celebration was already under way.
Not for the Manatee Hurricanes.
Tampa Plant's Panthers danced and leaped across the field, joined by their coaches and other players from the opposite sideline, their golden helmets shining in the Citrus Bowl's stadium lights.
State champs.
Plant 21, Manatee 14.
All the Canes could do was numbly watch.
They'd stormed back from a 21-0 halftime deficit and came within a fourth-down and short midway through the fourth quarter from sustaining their heroic comeback.
Slowly they assembled at the 50-yard line for the traditional postgame handshake.
Still, the Panthers celebration went on.
Their cheerleaders even assembled for a photo, most of them holding up their index fingers.
State champs.
What might've been.
The Canes just ran out of time.
Staggered by Plant's 21-point early outburst, Manatee showed a champion's heart, coming off the ropes in the second half, scoring twice to make it close.
They had their fans on their feet, yelling for more, rocking their side of the stadium.
"LET'S' GO MANATEE! LET'S GO MANATEE!" chanted the cheerleaders.
The Marching Canes were cranking the "Empire Strikes Back" theme.
Would their team strike back once more?
When Manatee got the ball back with 1:27 to play, they were working against a gale.
Cane quarterback Brion Carnes had to throw into its teeth.
Three incompletes made it fourth-and-10 from the Manatee 21.
Carnes scampered to his left and let fly, deep toward Ace Sanders, who outleaped two defenders, but couldn't make the catch.
That was the Canes last gasp.
Fifty-seven seconds remained in the season.
Panthers ball.
The celebration began.
After the Canes shook hands with the Panthers, they drifted toward the south end zone..
Some wept. Some embraced. Some knelt, head in hand.
When coach Joe Kinnan gathered his players around one final time, he told them he was proud of them, especially his seniors.
We have the nucleus, he also told them, to be back here again next season.
Yet next year seemed so far away.
It would take awhile for the Canes to get over this season ended.
State champs.
That was Plant Panthers Friday night.
Not the Manatee Hurricanes.
Maybe next year.