Panthers host Red Devils for homecoming battle
Kenneth W. Hammonds Stadium will be the scene of a turning point for one of the two undefeated teams in the 2A-5 conference as the Magnet Cove Panthers welcome the Mountain Pine Red Devils Friday night.
In the battle for the early lead in the conference, the Panthers (5-1, 3-0) and Red Devils (3-3, 3-0) both have significant running threats that will create issues for their defenses, but both coaches are optimistic about the outcome of the game.
“We feel good about it,” said Mountain Pine head coach Sam Counce. “We knew we’d have to go through Magnet Cove to win the conference. They’re always a good team. They’re one of the better teams. Coach [Caleb] Carmikle’s got them consistent over there, and we knew they were gonna be in the hunt just like we were.”
Carmikle has been eyeing this game since the Red Devils beat them last season, 33-24, and the Panthers are buzzing with excitement to “play a team with so much talent.”
“We’re happy to be undefeated in conference right now,” he said. “Everybody’s goal coming into the year is just to win a conference championship, so our kids are excited to be in the position that we’re in, so playing a team like Mountain Pine obviously. … Our kids weren’t prepared coming into that game. I think we overlooked them, and they outplayed us and outcoasted us, and that’s something we took pretty personal.”
Quarterback Collin Smith, rushing 368 yards on 26 carries in last week’s game against Bigelow, is a player that the Panthers are looking to contain this week.
“He’s a big kid, got a good frame and runs well, throws a pretty good ball, so everything they do kind of revolves around him,” Carmikle said.
The senior has completed 31 of 77 passes on the season for 264 yards and is a staple that Counce relies upon to lead the team.
“He had a good night [against Bigelow],” said Counce. “He’s our guy. If he plays well, we’re gonna have a pretty good night. Collin knows that Magnet Cove is the team that we gotta play well to be in the game, and Collin has risen up his senior year.”
The Red Devils struggled to “finish” last week against Bigelow, something that Counce has impressed upon the team during practice this week.
“They got within two touchdowns of us, and the thing is we’ve talked about a lot this week is finishing, making sure we don’t let up on anything, finish our drills, go until the whistle blows,” he explained. “That’s been our focus this week from last week, just some things that we really needed to shore up … We’re gonna do what we do. We’re not gonna change a whole lot, but we really gotta do it well Friday night to come out on top at Magnet Cove.”
Carmikle’s plan is “just to try to score more points than they do.”
“Their offensive and defensive linemen are very big,” he noted. “They’ve got a huge size advantage on us, so we gotta make sure we play low on the line of scrimmage and have a good ball get off and play with great technique because if we don’t, they’ll be in our backfield all night.”
Counce was concerned about junior running back Landon Stone and senior quarterback Tyler Hodges, both of whom are key to the Panthers’ offense. Stone has accumulated 1,285 yards on 113 carries while Hodges is 43-for-93 passing and has 58 carries for 749 yards.
“The running back — he’s just tough. He gets after it. He lowers his shoulders, he runs hard. We’ll have to be on our game to get him on the ground. He doesn’t go down easy.
“They run the screen some. They’ll hand it off in a draw situation. I think they’re just gonna see what we try to do, it’s gonna be more of a chess match early. Come out and just see what we’re gonna do. … We’re trying to prepare for everything they’re gonna do. I think when the night settles down, they’re just gonna run the ball straight at us.”
While homecoming could distract the Panthers, Carmikle does not think it will affect their gameplay much.
“We’ve had a great week of practice so far,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on ourselves as much as our opponent. We saw some things last Friday night in our game at Quitman that we have to correct in order to beat a good football team like Mountain Pine, so we’ve been working to correct those things.”
Neither team has major injuries, but Kason Porter is questionable for the Red Devils while Dylan Munson returns along with three suspended players.
“They’ll contribute a lot to special teams,” Counce said. “We should be in pretty good shape Friday night.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.