Fairbanks’ Ethan Kise (11) makes his way through Madison Plains’ defense. The Panthers will host West Liberty-Salem for Homecoming on Friday. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Strap on your helmets, Panther fans.
Friday night’s Homecoming game against West Liberty-Salem is going to be a wild one.
Oh sure, the Tigers will come into FHS’ Kyre Field with just a 1-3 record.
However, Panther coach Patrick Cotter said to put those numbers out of your mind.
“This is West Liberty-Salem,” said Cotter, whose Panthers stand at 3-2.
“Throw the records out the window.”
The Tigers employ a bit of a spread offensive element.
However, they will also use the jet sweep and iso that are associated with the Wing T.
“They want to run the football,” said Cotter.
West Liberty is averaging slightly more than 180 yards rushing and 130 in the air per game.
The ground attack is led by Gabe McGill.
He’s carried the ball 79 times for 564 yards and five touchdowns.
Quarterback Christian Griffith has completed 46% of his passes for 523 yards.
The Tigers’ ground game isn’t fancy.
“They just try to pound the ball at you right up the middle,” said Cotter. “They’re a C gap to C gap team.”
The Tigers run behind what the Panther coach calls a “typical West Liberty line.
“They are big and heavy… tough to move,” said Cotter. “However, that’s what we’ve had to deal with all season.”
The Panther coach, however, said he’d put his defense up against anyone’s offense at any time.
“Our front four, including Joe Kinsley, Mason Eagon, Holtz Maine, Ethan Hoffman and Bryson Tillman, have been playing very well,” said Cotter. “They’ve worked very hard and they have allowed linebackers Riordin Stauffer, Tanner Ufferman and Nick Rhea to stay open for tackles.”
The Panther defense is currently allowing only 10 points and 200 total yards per game.
West Liberty-Salem has used 4-2-5 and 5-2 defenses.
“With our running game, I expect we will see a 5-2 from West Liberty,” said Cotter. “They attack running teams pretty well.”
The Panther ground game is led by Brogan Green (74 attempts, 474 yards) and Stauffer (57, 350).
Fairbanks has rushed for 1,318 total yards in five games.
Cotter said the key to victory is “knowing your opponent.
“This is our fifth game against them since we joined the Ohio Heritage Conference,” he said. “We’ve both won two games and I think we lead them in overall points by a one.”
Although the Tigers struggled during the first half of the regular season, their record is not an indication of their talent.
“We can’t take West Liberty-Salem for granted,” said Cotter. “The year they went 9-1, we beat them.
“The year (2018) we went to the playoffs, they beat us,” he said.
“This is going to be an OHC North Division ‘slobber-knocker’ and you’ve got to love it,” said the Panther coach.
“We’re going to try and beat on them and they’re going to try and beat on us.”