Panthers seek balance against Northwest

By: RHETT MANUEL Sports Editor PRAIRIE RONDE – All that’s left for Pine Prairie to play for this season is pride. But, pride is a powerful motivator. It’s one of those things that is ingrained into every child from birth. Take pride in your work. Take pride in your appearance. In the home stretch of this season, the Pine Prairie Panthers’ road to redemption begins tomorrow night with a road trip to Prairie Ronde to take on the Northwest Raiders. Northwest, who enters the game 3-4 on the season, switched to a wing-T offense this year under head coach Chris Edwards and offensive coordinator Curt Ware. Ware, who has head coaching experience with stops at Rayne and New Iberia, brings a different edge to Northwest this year. “They’re a well-coached team,” Pine Prairie head coach Joe Heintz said. “With Coach Ware there, they’re running that wing-T pretty good.” The challenge with a team like Northwest and a wing-T offense is the similarity in sets they run. “They have so many plays that compliment each other. It’s hard to prepare to stop one thing, because they probably have another thing that looks like that one thing you’re trying to stop,” Heintz added. “They’ve got some athletic ability on both sides of the ball. They’re big on both sides of the ball as well.” Pine Prairie, coming off of a 56-12 loss to Iota last week, is struggling to find consistency on the offensive end. One week, senior running back Elijah George has a big week on the ground. The next week, it may be the passing game that emerges. Last week against Iota, they struggled in establishing the run but had some success in the quick passing game. Heintz is hopeful that his team puts it all together at some point. “Iota’s very good, probably one of the better teams in 3A,” Heintz said. “They were good on both sides. We couldn’t get anything going in the running game; the only thing really working was the quick passing game.” It’s a trend he hopes continues against Northwest. “Anytime you can throw the ball like we did last week, it helps,” Heintz said. “But it’s feast or famine. Hopefully, we can mix it up this week and we don’t have to just rely on the pass game.”