Pine Prairie faces off against Northwest in district opener

The Pine Prairie Panthers were hoping to go into the district season with a 3-2 record, but a loss this past Friday to Tara High School put a major kink in that plan.
Now the Panthers must face one of the top contenders in District 5-3A, the Northwest Raiders, in their first district contest in Pine Prairie tomorrow night. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Northwest has proven this season they are team to be reckoned with. The Raiders are 5-0 and are lighting up the scoreboard, averaging 46 points per game. On top of that Northwest is beating opponents by an average of 36 points per game.
Pine Prairie head coach Yves Prince knows he has a tall task at hand against the Raiders, but he also sees a chink in the Northwest armor.
“I don’t think they have really been tested this year,” said Prince. “Don’t get me wrong, they look awfully good on film. But, teams have scored some points on them. We just have to find a way to slow down their offense. They are in four and five wide sets, but they can run the ball effectively out of those sets. We are going to need our defense to possibly force some turnovers and give our offense the ball as many times as possible.”
One area of concern for Prince has been the Panther’s ability of not taking advantage of situations that present themselves at opportune times.
“We have to capitalize when teams give us the ball in their territory,” stated Prince. “Last week against Tara we rushed for over 200 yards and had the ball inside the red zone four times and could not put points up on the board. If we are going to win any more games we have to finish drives and take advantage of those opportunities.”