Tanner Ufferman (19) of Fairbanks brings a Cardington ball carrier down last Friday evening. The Panthers will play at Inidan Lake tonight. (Journal-Tribune photo by Chad Williamson)
The going could get a little tougher Friday night when the Fairbanks football team goes on the road.
The Panthers will put their 1-0 record up against the Lakers of Indian Lake (0-1).
Fairbanks shut out Cardington, 17-0, last week.
The Lakers dropped a 34-21 verdict to Anna.
Indian Lake will operate out of the spread offense.
Quarterback Caleb Wurster completed four passes for 109 yards against Anna.
Luke Jackson was on the receiving end of three passes and gathered them in for 81 yards.
Wurster can also use his feet to get out of a jam. He rushed for 52 of the Lakers’ 212 ground yards last week.
Elijah Slagle carried the ball 11 times for 126 yards.
“Slagle is a proven runner and they’ve got some decent receivers,” said Panther head coach Patrick Cotter. “They can come back for the football if their quarterback gets in trouble.”
Cotter also terms the Laker O-line as “solid.”
The Panthers did not play Indian Lake during a coronavirus-shortened regular season in 2020.
“They are a much more experienced team than in 2019,” the Panther coach said.
“Our defense is going to have to key on everyone,” he said. “We will have to match their athletes with our own.”
Indian Lake will employ a base 3-4 defense.
The Lakers, at times will walk up a linebacker or two to give an opponent a four-or-five man front.
IL will play Cover 4 in the secondary.
“They can attack very well and get after people,” said Cotter. “Their defense is very thick up front, but they also have good speed. Their defensive backs are also very good.”
Just how much the Panthers will try and work against the Lakers’ secondary remains to be seen.
Fairbanks, which has shifted from its long-time spread offense to a Wing T, put the ball in the air only three times during the victory over Cardington.
Cotter, however, said there’s no real secret to the Panthers’ offensive (225 total yards a week ago) success.
“If we just follow our rules and quickly get off the football, we can do whatever we want,” he said. “We just have to get our hats on their hats.”
The biggest key to winning the contest, Cotter said, will be FHS’ ability to match physical play with the Lakers.
“We have to have that on both sides of the ball in order to succeed,” he said.
There is an old football axiom that says coaches want to see the biggest improvement within their team from Week 1 to Week 2 during any given season.
Where does Cotter want to see the biggest strides?
“Everywhere,” he said. “Our defense played well against Cardington, but we still have to make some tweaks.
“We did miss some tackles last week, but those are things we can fix with reps in practice.
“We have to shore up some of our blocking and spring our runners into space,” said the Panther boss. “We’re still figuring a few things out.
“It’s like Coach Weiskircher used to say,” said Cotter. “He said ‘you’re never as bad as you seem and never as good as you think you are.’
“You’re never going to be perfect and it just takes time.”