The weeks have whittled their way down to days, as the 2009 high school football season is set to get underway Friday night.
For the Jackson County Panthers, that start means a long drive to Fairburn to face a very athletic team at Our Lady of Mercy. Last year, the Bobcats came out on the short end of a 16-10 final as the Panthers snapped a long losing streak.
The Panthers are hoping to start this season out on a similar high note. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
The Panthers will ride a wave of victory into their season opener, after outscoring their opponent in their last scrimmage of the pre-season Friday night 49-28 against Athens Christian.
“Our offense had some moments, and then we also had some moments where we found we had a lot of fixing to do this week in order to get better for Our Lady of Mercy,” said coach Billy Kirk. “Obviously, traveling down there makes it a little different. We’ll be playing in their backyard. We’ve got to be better defensively. We’ve got to win the special teams battle and be ready to compete.”
Kirk pointed to the performances of several players as being key in Friday’s scrimmage, including Rob Williams, who had six receptions, quarterback Alex Crawford, who had 10 completions on 15 attempts for 139 yards, offensive lineman Ben Brown, and Charles Smothers, who scored two touchdowns on the night.
“We had over 500 yards total offense,” Kirk said. “It’s hard to pinpoint one kid, because we spread the ball around so much. We don’t have one go-to guy. We have a bunch of little people that we spread it around to.”
Kirk said that means the team has to prepare the full field as opposed to finding one jersey number.
“It’s not just one guy that’s making all the stuff,” he said. “Zack Sticher, our ex-receiver, quietly had three or four catches but had a touchdown and did his little thing outside. We spread the field out and all of our guys have the ability to make the play.”
Kirk said special teams will get a lot of focus in this final week leading up to the opener.
“We’ve got to tighten some things up defensively. I think we’ve got a good game plan going in, and we just need to continue to progress our offense. This is a new thing for us. We’re going to have to open it up a little more and do what we do offensively. Coach Cole does a great job calling plays and coach Reid does a great job as defense coordinator. We’ve got a good game plan going in to stop them and score some points. Hopefully we can do both.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald or The Braselton News.
