Eagles aim for first win against visiting Panthers
After last week’s 27-26 loss versus Bismarck, Cutter Morning Star is “hungry for a win” as they welcome Bigelow to Eagle Field tonight.
After senior Keshawn Blevins’ explosive performance on offense, running for 239 yards, first-year head coach Matt Kinsinger is looking forward to securing his team’s first win of the year as they spent the week cleaning up mistakes and preparing for the Panthers.
“The big thing is we’ve made sure we rotated guys through multiple positions so they know more than one position,” he said. “This week we practiced on ball security and small things — little things we work on every day. Just continuing to emphasize those things — footwork, mainly.”
The Panthers (1-0) encountered a rough season last year as they stumbled through a winless conference. For the Eagles (0-1), Bigelow junior Keithlin Brown is a threat they will need to contain. Brown went 15 of 23 passing for 143 yards and had 23 carries for 184 yards in 2019.
“He’s really good,” he said. “He’s a good hand. … He’s a really good quarterback, talented and really, really fast — a hard runner. He’s got breakaway speed. He’s a returner and on special teams. No. 12 (Brayden Jones) — their running back, he’s a hard runner. He breaks tackles. Those are the two guys we’ve got to look out for on offense.”
Today marks senior fullback Landon Watson’s return to the field after being removed from last year’s playoff game. Watson finished with 15 receptions for 303 yards last fall.
“That’ll help us out,” he said. “He’s been playing fullback here for several years, so that’ll be good to have him back in the mix. I’ve got another starter that’ll be back and a couple of guys who get injured in the second half (against Bismarck). They’re getting close to getting ready to play, so we’ll have to see at game time. Landon being back in the mix is going to help us out offensively.”
Even with the reduced crowds due to COVID-19, Kinsinger isn’t too concerned with how the diminished presence of fans might affect the players.
“I really don’t know what crowds look like at this level,” he said. “I know they draw pretty good crowds and have really good support here at the school. I think the majority of families are there, and I think that’s important to the kids. I know it’s going to be different for other parts of a football game in a sense that the cheerleaders aren’t going to be able to travel to away games and band and all that stuff. I know that’s going to be an impact. It’s always good to have your band and your cheerleaders there with you, encouraging you, doing what they do. As far as the fans, the parents are there, and it seems like a majority of the parents were there, and I think that’s what kids care about as far as who’s in the stands. It’s always fun to play in front of large crowds because there’s a lot of energy that comes from that.”
Kinsinger said the team is eager to get back on the field and execute under the Friday night lights.
“I think they handled the loss,” he said, referencing last week. “It hurt them. You hate to see your kids hurt, but you want it to mean something. It meant something to them. They’re hungry for another chance to get a win. They’re excited about playing again this week.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.