Daviess County at Owensboro
For the second week in a row, the Owensboro Red Devils are hosting a crosstown rival at Rash Stadium.
Next up for OHS is head coach Matt Brannon’s Daviess County Panthers.
Brannon said it was a good feeling being back on the field last week.
“It was exciting, it was relieving,” he said. “A lot of emotions. Stressful leading up to it, that’s definitely one of those. Just to get out there and kind of cash in from all the work you put in from June on, with all the uncertainty, it was nice to just get on the field.”
DC beat Ohio County last week behind a strong performance from Bryson Parm running the football. Parm ran for 191 yards and three scores while backup QB Joe Ball threw for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Most of Ball’s yards went to Decker Renfrow, as he hauled in five catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns.
“We expected to win,” Brannon said of the game with Ohio County. “We expect to win every game. I think they came out and kind of punched us in the mouth early then woke us up a little bit. We had to coach, we had to make adjustments at halftime. We had to challenge them. It was nice to go through that as well. There are times where you can coast through a game and you’re not pushed and that was definitely not the case for us on Friday.”
But this week the Panthers will have their original starter at quarterback as Joe Humphreys returns. Humphreys was out last week following COVID-19 protocols.
“He’s looked good all week,” Brannon said of his junior quarterback in practice.
Brannon knows tonight is going to be a tough matchup for his squad.
“I think it’s going to be a chess match,” he said. “The coaching staff over there does an excellent job of making adjustments in-game and seeing what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to attack them. We’ve got to be ready for that.”
But, it’s no surprise who Brannon and the Panthers are focused on.
“The name of the game is how much we can contain Gavin Wimsatt,” he said. “We’ve got to slow him down.”
For Owensboro and Red Devils coach Jay Fallin, last Friday stood out more to him as he had time to reflect on the evening.
“You think about those things in the lead-up,” he said. “Once you get out there and playing and coaching, it kind of feels like just another Friday. Every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of the crowd out of the corner of my eye and realized it would be nothing like a home opener against a crosstown rival in a regular year in terms of attendance.”
The Red Devils took down Apollo 50-13 last week at Rash Stadium. Wimsatt finished with three total touchdowns, while Ethan Avery ran for 163 yards and two scores.
Fallin said while today is another game on the schedule, he knows it means more when playing a rival because his players are friends with Panthers players and have grown up together.
“We want to bring the same level of enthusiasm and attention to detail every week,” he said. “But obviously for teenagers and even for coaches, there’s going to be a different level of excitement when you’re playing.”
Fallin said he wants to keep some of his gameplan close to the vest but for him, balance is having multiple players contribute on offense.
“We want to make sure that we are balanced in terms of the defense has to respect all six of those of those guys that can hurt them on every play,” he said. “That’s when you achieve balance and that’s when you can be successful.”
Fallin said when they achieve balance, good things happen.
“At the top of the game plan every week is to win,” he said. “What we want to do offensively is, we believe we’ve got six guys on the field that are capable of carrying the ball. We want to find what the defense is giving us. Whether that’s by scheme — every defense has a hole in the scheme — or whether that’s by personnel mismatch. If we feel we’ve got somebody who can exploit a mismatch, we want to try to find what the defense is giving us.”
Daviess County and Owensboro hit the field at 7 p.m. at Rash Stadium.
Meade County at Apollo
After falling to Owensboro in the season opener, John Edge and the Apollo Eagles are ready to return home Friday as they host Meade County.
AHS coach John Edge said last week’s opener was different but it became all about football pretty quickly. He said when the KHSAA made the decision to continue the season was then they was dialed in.
“When we found out we were playing, it was business mode then,” he said. “It was kind of surreal when the stands, there’s hardly anybody in there and you’re thinking ‘my goodness, these college and NFL games.’ Now you kind of get an idea of what they’re going through with nobody there.”
Edge said they’re fortunate they can have fans in the stands but mostly he’s just happy they get to play football.
The Eagles welcome the Green Wave tonight after they took down John Hardin 14-7 last week.
Edge said Meade runs the Wing-T and it shows in their 164 rushing yards last week. Quarterback Kyle Parker threw for 71 yards with two touchdowns and a pick but he also ran for 44 yards. Austin Oppel led the Green Wave in rushing with 80 yards in 12 carries.
Edge said it’ll be a much different offense to prepare for than the Red Devils.
“They’re not going to throw the ball as much,” Edge said of Meade. “Obviously Gavin Wimsatt, he is who he is. He’s a good player.”
He said he thinks the Eagles’ strength at the line could lead to Meade thinking they have some room over the top.
“We’re very strong up front and our front seven are good,” he said. “I can see them taking shots this week. I would, just to see what happens, and go for that.”
Harold Patterson (150 yards) and Damian Lovinsky (105 yards, 1 touchdown) each had big games running the ball last week but Edge said when the deficit grew, he changed things up.
“I made a coaching decision,” he said. “I said let’s try to come back instead of just doing what we did. We still ran the ball. I thought once they scored that first touchdown in the second half, I think people were saying ‘uh oh, we better start coming back.’ We did a couple of things we didn’t routinely do well at but that’s my fault. We’ll get back to doing what we do and that’s it.”
Apollo and Meade County meet tonight at 7 p.m. at AHS.
