Eagles playing for position vs. Bigelow
Cutter Morning Star will advance to its first football playoffs since 2013 after last week’s win over Conway Christian, but the Eagles are not planning to back down in their final two regular-season games.
The Eagles (5-3, 3-2 2A-5) play host to the winless Bigelow Panthers (0-8, 0-5) tonight at 7 p.m. at Eagle Field, but head coach T.C. Shamel said that his team is not looking past the Panthers, despite their record. He noted that the Panthers’ main offensive threat is their quarterback, Keithlin Brown.
“Their little quarterback, he’s a sophomore,” he said. “I’m not sure what his name is, but he gave his face in junior high last year, and watching film of him; he’s elusive. I mean, he can make you miss.
“He can make some plays. He’s a playmaker for sure. So we gotta contain him. We’re trying to make him throw the ball. He’s thrown some picks this year, but he can be a problem for sure.”
While the Panthers rely on Brown to do the brunt of the offensive work, they have several other players who can pick up the slack
when necessary.
“We’ve been trying to to be sure that our kids are well aware of that and talk about those other kids,” Shamel said. “We’ve had two pretty good days of practice defensively, and I think our kids are ready. And one thing that’s different this year is right now going into Week 9, conference-wise points allowed, we’re leading our conference defensively. We haven’t been in that position in a long time, and that’s that’s the main reason that we are 3-2 in conference and 5-3 overall and just a couple plays from being 7-0.”
Last week, the Eagles took a 21-16 win over Conway Christian, the program’s first win against the team since 2013.
“It’s been a long time, and what was great about it is that it secured a playoff bid for us this year, so it was nice to go down there,” Shamel explained. “We knew their record really didn’t indicate what kind of team they are. I mean, they’re physical. They beat Quitman pretty good. I mean, they’re not a bad ballclub, but like I said, the record, they lost some tough ones.”
The Eagles will be advancing the playoffs for the fourth time in school history, Shamel said, “which is 43, 44 years.”
“So that is an accomplishment, but our next goal is to win a playoff game,” he said. “So these kids are staying humble, and they’re focused. I think that’s what they want, so we’ll see.”
Cutter Morning Star, while they have earned a playoff berth, is still trying to set its final position in the conference. The top two seeds host their first playoff game while the third through fifth seeds travel.
“So we’re probably going to be a four, I would think,” Shamel said. “You know, we could slip to five, I guess, but we’re probably looking at four right now.”