The Pine Prairie Panthers will open up the David Michael Carrell era with a home contest against the Beau Chene Gators tonight in a non-district match-up.
Game time at Panther Stadium is set for 7 p.m.
Pine Prairie is a young squad in terms of overall number of underclassmen. However, those same underclassmen return a ton of experience having been thrown into the fire last season.
Newly installed head coach David Michael Carrrell is very enthusiastic and believes that his team is patiently getting themselves use to he and his coaching staff’s system as they prepare for their first real test of the season.
“The scrimmage Friday against Thrive Academy went really well for us,” stated Carrell. “The players were excited to finally hit someone else besides their own teammates. Overall, I thought the team performed up to expectations, with a few exceptions. One thing I liked was their effort. They came out and played full speed and it showed in their play.”
What the scrimmage did show the Panther coaching staff was that the skill position players are going to be fun to coach this season.
“Josiah Ortis had two great catches down field and Elijah George ran his tail off for us Friday,” said Carrell. “Our quarterbacks Branson Fontenot and Hayden Bourgeious played extremely well. When you look at it, we do not lose any skill guys after this season. I am looking forward to seeing them grow each and every week.”
Carrell had a ton of praise for this offensive line. As far as the first year head coach is concerned, the big guys up front did their job in the scrimmage Friday.
“You could really see a difference in the offensive line play from last season when you watch them on film and how they performed Friday,” commented Carrell. “They might be the same kids, but playing football for them is completely different this season.”
Defensively, Carrell praised co-ordinator Richard Clark and his effort to get the Panthers in sync for the upcoming season.
“Coach Clark has done a tremendous job changing the mind set of the players and teaching them the skills needed to be successful,” said Carrell. “We will need to work a little harder at open field tackling, but the progress that we have made so far has impressed all of the coaches.”
Carrell was very complementary of Beau Chene and the athletes they have on the field.
“I think Beau Chene is very athletic, especially with their defensive backfield,” stated Carrell. “Offensively, we are going to have to neutralize their defensive line and try to get to their linebackers. Defensively, the key for us, we are going to have to adjust to their spread offense by playing a lot of nickel packages.”
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Tracey Jagneaux
Sports Editor