We Speak High School Football

Miami Palmetto’s Panthers Are Built to Make a Deep Playoff Run

Published

4 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Miami Palmetto's Panthers Are Built to Make a Deep Playoff Run

If you are looking for the team nobody in South Florida wants to see in their playoff bracket, start in Pinecrest. Miami Palmetto is 6-2, deep, physical, and built exactly the way November football demands.

The Panthers announced themselves early. They opened the season by blanking Miami Killian 35-0, handled Mater Academy 42-7, and then went out and beat Southridge 28-6 — the same Southridge team that has since won three straight, including a 28-point win over Norland. Palmetto kept stacking results: a 28-6 district win over Coral Gables and a 72-0 demolition of Southwest Miami that showed the Panthers’ depth as much as their starters.

Palmetto’s two losses came against quality — including Thursday’s 41-21 defeat against a shorthanded-but-dangerous Carol City team — and even in defeat, the local read on the Panthers stayed bullish. South Florida analyst Andre Fernandez’s Week 10 Top 20 kept Palmetto at No. 7 in the area, noting the Panthers should still make it through their region in Class 6A behind a potent running game, while flagging the defense as the unit that decides how far this run really goes.

That is a fair challenge, and Palmetto has the roster to answer it. This is a program with next-level talent across the lineup and the kind of balance — power running, play-action shots, and a front that travels — that wins road playoff games in November.

The regular season closes with a district test at South Dade on October 22 and a trip to Naples on October 30, two more chances to sharpen before the bracket is set.

Palmetto has been close before. This version of the Panthers — 6-2, battle-tested, and still improving — looks like the one that expects to finish the job.

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Royal Jones

We Speak High School Football

Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights

Published

4 hours ago

October 22, 2026

Royal Jones

The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.

Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.

That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.

That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.

The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.

Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.