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Panthers at first place Madison Plains

Thursday, 25 September 2008

Look who’s at the top of the SCOL football standings.

Clinton-Massie; no surprise there; but also Madison Plains is off to a 2-0 start in the SCOL.

The Miami Trace Panthers are on the road this Friday as they look to bounce back from a 34-6 loss last week to Clinton-Massie.

The Golden Eagles spoiled the football part of McClain’s homecoming last week, handing the Tigers a 28-0 loss.

“We only look one week at a time,” Miami Trace head coach Mike Bernard said. “What we’re looking at with Madison Plains is a team that’s tied for first in the SCOL.

“We’ve seen them once in person,” Bernard said. “They don’t have a lot of kids (somewhere between 30 and 35 in grades 9-12), so they’re having success with a smaller number of kids. Then you take away some of their freshman and that leaves a core group of 20-some sophomores, juniors and seniors. Their kids are obviously playing both ways and not getting as many breaks as kids on other teams where opponents have more kids to sub in and out.

“That makes them that much more impressive,” Bernard said. “They’re a tough, physical team that plays hard. They play the entire game that way. They’ve won some games late in the fourth quarter and held off some teams in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to give all the credit in the world right now to Madison Plains and their kids and their coaching staff for what they’ve been able to accomplish so far this year.”

Will the Panthers be able to wear the Golden Eagles down in the later stages of the game?

“Anytime you play as many kids as we do, and you go against a team that plays a much smaller number of kids, that’s hopefully a goal,” Bernard said. “I’m not saying we can do that. Because, obviously, by week six of the season, their kids are accustomed to playing the entire game. It’s not like they’ve suddenly just started doing it. They’ve been doing it all year.

“We want to put enough kids on the field and keep our kids fresh while they get a little bit tired,” Bernard said. “But they’ve won three in a row and none of those teams have been able to do that.

“They’ve had to overcome some injuries,” Bernard said. “They had to move a wide receiver to quarterback early in the season. He runs the offense pretty well. He obviously runs well. For a wide receiver, he throws the ball pretty well.”

Like most high school teams, the Golden Eagles run the ball two to three times more than they will pass, Bernard said.

“They’re running the ball out of several different formations,” Bernard said. “It’s not like they’re running 20 or 30 plays. They’re running a handful of plays out of different formations.

“They’ve moved the ball on some teams and they’ve played really good defense,” Bernard said. “They were impressive against Washington. The Blue Lions are primarily a running team. And then they shut-out Greenfield that has primarily been a passing team. They’ve faced two somewhat different offenses the last two weeks and had success against both.”

The loss to Clinton-Massie was disappointing, Bernard said.

“Our goal every year here at Miami Trace is to compete for a league championship,” Bernard said. “Unfortunately this year, just like last year, we were not able to beat Clinton-Massie. That means, if we’re going to have even a share of the SCOL, we’re going to have to win the remainder of our games and someone is going to have to beat Clinton-Massie down the road. That’s going to be a tall order for whatever team can do that.

“What we have to do now is, not worry about the league championship,” Bernard said. “We had our chance last week to put ourselves in the driver’s seat and Clinton-Massie beat us. Now we have to turn our attention to what we can do to make ourselves a better football team this week as we prepare for Madison Plains.

“We will strive to improve our team each week as the season goes along,” Bernard said. “We need to get our running game back to where we can get good, positive gains on first down and avoid penalities on first down. We’re a pretty good football team if we’re second and five, second and four, second and six. We’re not a very good team if we’re first and 15. If we get a penalty on first down, if we get off schedule, so to speak, then that hurts us.

“We’re still trying to work on our passing game,” Bernard said. “Open some things up there.

“Defensively, we’ve got to work on getting our pad-level down,” Bernard said. “That goes for the offensive and defensive lines. We’ve got to play the game lower. We did that some Friday night, but not enough.”

Against Clinton-Massie, Trevor Milstead led the Panthers with 11 tackles; Tom Armstrong had 10 total tackles and Travis McIntosh had eight tackles.