The Apollo Eagles haven’t beaten Daviess County since 2012 but the Panthers are trying to make it eight in a row against their county rivals as the meet tonight at Reid Stadium.
The Eagles come into the matchup at 2-3 with losses against Owensboro, McCracken County and Henderson County but are coming off of a 34-10 win over Marshall County.
Apollo coach John Edge said his team is ready to get back on the field.
“I think the kids are excited,” he said. “I think they’re excited to play Daviess County. I think it’s a team that last year, felt like they let it slip away … Our kids felt good after the Henderson game, we let that slip away as well. We had a great chance to win the ballgame. Could be very easily second seed and possibly in the top 10 of 6A. Our kids know that they’re there, we just got to finish and once we do that, I think our kids will definitely gain more confidence as the season goes along.”
For Edge, he said the game is going to be decided by field position and they can’t give the Panthers a short field throughout the game.
“I think the games going to be won on the special teams front,” he said. “Whoever has the best field position will obviously have the better chances to score than the opponent. That’s one thing we’re looking forward to. Our kids every day are just ready to compete.”
Edge is no stranger to rivalry games in the city of Owensboro dating back to his days at Owensboro Catholic.
He said his guys don’t need any more incentive when they take the field.
“Anytime it’s a city game or a city-county game, you’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” he said. “Whether you’re down or up, it doesn’t matter. You’re going to get teams best shot. It’s the one that’s going to prevail in the second half or fourth quarter is the team that’s going to win.”
Apollo quarterback Damian Lovinsky has thrown for 545 yards and three touchdowns this season with just one interception but where Lovinsky changes the game is with his legs.
He has 511 yards and six touchdowns this season to lead the Eagles as Harold Patterson is right behind him with 479 yards and two touchdowns.
Edge says even if Lovinsky’s passing game isn’t working, he’s athletic enough to be able to still hurt teams in other ways.
“He’s not a stat guy, he could care less last week if it was 250 yards passing or 250 yards rushing that he got,” he said. “He did 250 and almost 100 passing.”
For the Panthers, they have lost to the same three teams as the Eagles as DC is also 2-3 this season but head into Friday with back-to-back loss and looking for their first win since a 56-6 drumming of the Marshals back on Sept. 25.
Brannon said the mood is trending upward in the Panthers’ locker room.
“I think a little frustration, kind of a little bit of excitement to be honest,” he said. “We had challenged our team on Friday and I challenged them again on Sunday, being our first in-person film session. We’ve been trying to do things virtual and I said this is one of those games where you need to be called out in front of your peers and challenged to perform differently than what you’ve been doing.”
The Panther coaching staff was even challenged by Brannon and he said they’re ready to get after it tonight against the Eagles.
Like Apollo, DC has lost to three solid opponents but Brannon said they can use that as a silver lining that’s not the ultimate goal.
“I think we feel like we’re past moral victories,” he said. “We’ve had some moral victories in the past, when we first started as a coaching staff. Last year, we could use that because we were but we got all those kids back this year. Our expectations were high and I think that’s why it’s been frustrating. I think the kids are ready to move on, get over and get a win.”
Brannon said he knows what Lovinsky and Patterson are capable of and they’ve got to step up to stop them.
“We haven’t responded physically,” he said. “We have to be able to tackle better, we have to be aggressive at the line of scrimmage. For us, this is what I told our players, we’re not playing complementary football. We could put up great statistics but opportunistic drives, when our defense gets a stop, we have to sustain a drive and score points. We have to extend leads when we have an opportunity.”
Joe Humphreys has led the Panthers this season as he has 942 yards with 13 touchdowns and like Lovinsky, only one interception. Also, like Lovinsky, Humphreys has hurt teams with his legs as he has 290 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.
Bryson Parm is leading DC in rushing with 618 yards and six touchdowns. Decker Renfrow has been Humphreys’ favorite target in the passing game as he has 20 catches for 316 yards and six touchdowns. The Panthers have five players with at least 10 catches 100 receiving yards this season.
Gunnar Evans (71 tackles) and Parker Crews (63 tackles) continue to lead the Panther defense.
Apollo and Daviess County hit the field at 7 p.m. inside Reid Stadium.
