Daviess County football will return home this Friday night in hopes to end their two-game skid, hosting a hot Madisonville-North Hopkins team.
The Panthers are coming off a loss to Ryle, where they really struggled to get things going on the offensive side of the ball. The defense carried this Daviess County squad throughout the game, as they have the majority of this season.
Towards the end of the first quarter, senior Decker Renfrow intercepted a pass and took it 59-yards back to the endzone to put the Panthers up 7-3. This is nothing new for the four-year varsity starter, as he now leads the entire state in interceptions (6), interception return yards (244), and interception return touchdowns (3).
Sophomore Gatlin Maysey and junior Luke Floyd were also able to come away with interceptions, and junior Sam Clark had a fumble recovery as well. Four turnovers caused by this Daviess County defense still wasn’t enough, as they fell 23-7.
Head Coach Matt Brannon has his sights set on the Panthers matchup against Madisonville this Friday, a team who’s coming off three straight victories.
“We have definitely been battle tested over the first four weeks, and things do not get any easier this week against the Maroons,” Brannon said. “Madisonville is a very athletic team that has had lots of success so far this season.”
Junior quarterback Anias Mitchell has had an impressive season for the Maroons, through the air and in the ground game. He’s racked up over 1,000 total yards of offense and ten total touchdowns in just four games.
“Their quarterback is doing a great job of distributing the ball to his playmakers and being a playmaker himself,” Brannon said. “They are a spread team that likes to run the ball. You have to honor their athletes in space, and they take advantage of four- and five-man boxes with their run game, especially the Zone Read option
This should be an exciting one, featuring an explosive Madisonville offensive facing this Panthers defense that has continued to create turnovers throughout the season. Coach Brannon has some keys for his team to get ready for this matchup on Friday.
“We have to maintain focus all week in practice and take care of fundamentals that have given us success up to this point. We must execute on special teams and continue to create turnovers on defense,” Brannon said.
These two programs are pretty familiar with each other, splitting their last two matchups in 2019 and 2021. Although Panthers got the best of the Maroons at their place last season, both teams look very different this year. This is a big game for both sides, as each team starts district play next Friday.
“Although this game has no impact on our district standings, we need a win this Friday to build back some momentum as we head into district play,” Brannon said. “This will be a challenging game, but I know our team is up for it.”
Daviess County will host the Maroons at Reid Stadium on Friday night, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
