Pine Prairie needing rebound win this week at Pearl River

After a confidence building opening game win over Bunkie, the Pine Prairie Panthers reversed direction this past Friday as they fell to the Beau Chene Gators 29-0.
Losing to the Gators was disappointing to Panther head coach Yves Prince, but even more disappointing was the way his team came out after a huge win the week before.
“There is no other way to describe it, we just came out flat,” said Prince. “I guess when you have a young team you can expect those types of things to happen. I told the players after the game that we have to put this one behind us and re-focus on the next game.”
That next game will definitely need some focus, as Pine Prairie will travel the 189 miles to Pearl River to take on the Rebels. Pearl River comes into the game 1-1 on the year after falling to Sci Academy 36-32 this past Friday. A main concern for Prince is the Rebel offense, as they are averaging 40 points a game. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
“Pearl River can put some points up on the board,” stated Prince. “But, they also give up quite a few points. I think if we can control the line of scrimmage and keep the ball out of their hands we have a real good chance of coming away with a win. They like to run the ball and have some good athletes that make their offense click.”
One area of concern for Prince coming out of their loss to Beau Chene is the play of the defense. This will have to be a week where the youth on that side of the ball needs to mature fast. The Panthers start a host of sophomores and freshmen on the defensive side.
The Panthers gave up a huge amount of yardage to Beau Chene this past Friday. The Gators had 340 yards rushing on 45 attempts for an average of 7.9 yards per carry. They also scored all of their points on the ground; six touchdowns in total.
“We just missed too many assignments this past week,” commented Prince. “We will have to continue to work on that part of our game all this week at practice.”