Pine Prairie Panthers visit Northwest Raiders for district game

The Pine Prairie Panthers are coming off a disappointing loss on Friday to the Ville Platte Bulldogs. The 25-7 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs temporarily derailed the Panther playoff train. But, Pine Prairie is hoping to get back on track this week as they host the 1-6 Northwest Raiders in a district 5-3A game. If the Panthers are able to slip past the Raiders, they will continue to have hope of that ever elusive playoff appearance. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
This past Friday, the Panther offense looked as if it were ready to score often. A 62-yard touchdown pass gave Pine Prairie the early lead and momentum. However, they were unable to get much going after that score and could not overcome the deficit that the Bulldogs had built. The Panther offense was rather anemic, as it could only muster 29 yards rushing and 109 total yards of offense. Pine Prairie also seemed to have no answer for the defensive ends of Ville Platte, who put unyielding pressure on quarterback Dylan Doucet.
“We had some momentum after we scored the touchdown against Ville Platte,” stated Pine Prairie Head Coach Yves Prince. “Then we gave up the big touchdown on the kickoff return for a touchdown and that killed the momentum we had. Offensively we had trouble blocking their pass rush. They were rushing their defensive end and tackle on the outside of our tackle. Our freshman guard just never got out to block the defensive end.”
The Panther defense kept the Ville Platte offense off balance for most of the first half. But, with the Pine Prairie offense not getting much traction, the defense could not hold the Bulldogs out of the end zone for the rest of the game.
Ville Platte used a dominating running game to rush for 221 yards and control the time of possession, especially in the second half.
Now, the Northwest Raiders come to town with so much riding on a Panther victory. The Raiders’ only win of the season came against a winless West St. Mary squad. Northwest has given up 281 points this season, an average of 40 points per game. Still, Prince is aware that the Raiders have zero to play for and that makes for a very dangerous team. Northwest would like nothing more than to stop the Panthers and their quest to make the playoffs for the first time in team history.
“Northwest is a decent football team,” said Prince. “They are as big as Ville Platte up front. Their running back is very good. We are going to have to play well to get the win. I really would like to see us get another win to help with the power points. I really believe another win would get us in the playoffs.”