Panthers Fight Bulldawgs Tonight
By John Earp
The Jal Panthers Varsity Football Team (2-2) faces off this evening at 6:00 p.m. in Panther Stadium against the Las Cruces High Junior Varsity Bulldawgs (3-0), in what is looking to be a very competitive homecoming game. Head Coach Brent Satterwhite says, “I think they’re a really talented club. I believe their varsity’s like number one in the state, in our largest classification. So, these are the younger kids that work out with those kids all the time. So they’re getting some good work in and they’ve got a really, really, really good running back that I’m impressed with. I mean His last name I believe is Lopez and has really good quickness and speed. Their quarterback throws the ball okay, but he’s scary when he runs it too. Okay. And they’re probably not as big as they were last year, but they got some skills.”
When asked how he feels his team is doing so far this season, he said, “Obviously, we’re always working on something. We’re trying to get better at something. But, you know, I think we’re improving in a lot of ways. Our only negative right now is we’re getting pretty banged up. And so that’s, you know, forcing us to move kids around and do a few things different, you know, to meet the challenges of that. But, you know, as far as how our kids are planning on game day and trying to do the things that we’re asking of them, and they’re playing with, I think, a real physicality right now. That part of it’s been really good, and you know, I thought it was good the other night when we were in Van Horn. I think we banged on them pretty good, and there were times that their kids didn’t want to come back on the field and when they did, they came in in different positions. So, they started moving guys around. I think they were begging kids to go back and play. So, in football, when you kind of get that edge going, it makes the game a lot more fun if you’re on the side that is doing the intimidating and not the other side.” The Panthers beat Van Horn 41-0 last Friday in Van Horn. Van Horn is a 1A team in Texas. Satterwhite says it was good to be able to play “everybody we took with us” to Van Horn, since the Panthers were so far ahead. “I’m getting excited when we get to play everybody,” Coach said.
Satterwhite says the Bulldawgs running back is small but very quick, and the Panther Defense will have to be really on the ball against him. He says, “It’s just, there’s going to be some speed on the field with this young man, and we’re going to have to really force him to go east and west and not let him get cranked up, going north and south. And he also returns punts and kicks for them, and we watched him on tape against Centennial actually, and they were foolish enough to punt it to him twice, and he took it to the house once and almost to the house the second time. He’s the big reason they’re 3-0. Now, the quarterback can throw a little and then he scrambles and runs for some yardage, too. So he’s a dual threat kind of kid. Fortunately, neither one of them are great big guys. I think that running back, if MaxPreps is correct, it looks like he’s about 150 pounds or so.”
Kickoff will be at 6:00 p.m., with Homecoming Coronation being at 5:00 p.m.