Panthers look to end losing skid against injury-riddled Redskins
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YORKVILLE -- When the Buckeye Local Panthers and Indian Creek Redskins take the field at World War II Memorial Stadium on Friday night, there is a lot of history that comes with the meeting of local rivals.
"It's a Buckeye 8 game, plus Buckeye is one of our main rivals because we've played them continuously since we've been a high school," Indian Creek coach Andrew Connor said. "It's been some great battles over the years. Their kids grow up with our kids. They have been some close games over the years, and I expect the same thing on Friday night."
Connor knows -- while some may focus on Buckeye Local's losing streak -- the Panthers are much improved and will provide a challenge.
"Each week they get better and they play really hard," Connor said of Buckeye Local. "Coach (Roger) Herbert has done a very good job, and they are getting better at everything program-wide. I expect them to give their very best.
"Their effort is good, you can see it in their games. They tackle better. What they do on both sides of the ball schematically is putting their kids in better places."
Indian Creek won last season's meeting, 36-0, at Kettlewell Memorial Stadium.
The Redskins are now 2-1, coming off a tough 26-13 loss to Alliance on the road. Connor's team is averaging 349 yards and 24.7 points per game, despite some key injuries on offense. That is good enough to be among the area's leaders so far.
Those key injuries, though, have mostly been at the quarterback position. In the Gridiron magazine, Connor said he was very happy with the depth at the position, and with Brennon Norris' season-ending injury in the opener and backup Sam Mazar getting hurt against Alliance, the Redskins had to use that depth.
"We've tested that depth," Connor said. "Sam is doing better. We had a lot of kids that got banged up in Alliance and a lot of kids that were banged up going in there, so a lot of kids are day-to-day going into this week."
Shane Zrinyi went 5 of 9 for 50 yards a touchdown after entering the game against Alliance.
"They throw the ball really well," Herbert said of the Redskins. "They spread you out and get the ball to their athletes in space. I know they have had injuries at the quarterback position, but all the guys they have run out there throw the ball really well."
The Panthers, on the other hand, are 0-3 after a 35-21 loss to Oak Glen at home. Herbert's team is averaging 14.3 points and 164 yards of offense per game. Herbert wants to see more consistency from his offense, which has done some good things at times.
"We've got to sustain drives," he said. "We will put together a couple of nice drives, then we stall. We've got to keep moving the chains."
Another key for Herbert's bunch is on the defensive side where he wants to see his team do a better job of stalling out the opposition's drives.
"We've got to get off the field on third down," he said. "I know it is football coach cliche, but things like that are important. We had some problems with things like that (against Oak Glen)."
The Panthers had a couple of injuries as well to leading receivers Shayne Christian and Jack Reese. According to Herbert, Christian is expected to play on Friday night, while Reese will miss the game with a shoulder injury.