Pine Prairie travels to Beau Chene Friday

It may be back to the drawing board for the Pine Prairie Panthers this Friday, as they travel to Beau Chene to take on the Gators in a non-district contest. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Pine Prairie had a very difficult time this past Friday getting their offensive unit going against the Bunkie Panthers.
Pine Prairie was held to 153 total yards in 40 plays, 150 of those yards came on the ground. The Panthers scored 14 points; the final score came late in the fourth quarter.
“We moved the ball at times,” said Panther head coach Yves Prince. “I thought our freshman quarterback, Jordan Ardoin, did a great job of running the veer. He understood when to keep, when to give and when to pitch. But, I think we are going to change some things on offense. We are going to have to open things up.”
“We can’t just rely on the running game to win ball games for us,” continued Prince. “We need to be able to produce in the passing game to keep teams honest.”
Pine Prairie was one for six against Bunkie for only three total yards through the air.
The Panther defense had a rough go of it against Bunkie. The Avoyelles Parish Panthers collected 428 yards of net offense in 44 plays, an average of 9.7 per play. Pine Prairie allowed 385 yards on the ground.
“Our alignment on defense was not very good,” stated Prince. “We were out of position and allowed Bunkie to run the counters on us all night. We have to play good defense from here on out in order to have a chance to win.”
“We are playing a number of freshmen and sophomores on both sides of the ball,” continued Prince. “This is all part of growing up. Those guys are going to have to learn to cut down on the mistakes in order for us to be successful this season.”
Beau Chene is 1-0 this season after defeating West St. Mary this past Friday 23-0. The Gators reside in class 4A and will provide another challenge to the Panthers this week.
“Beau Chene is a decent team,” commented Prince. “We are going to have to stop their fullback. They like to run him. From there, we are going to have to control the football on offense. If we can stop the run and control the clock Friday night, we give ourselves a chance to win.”
Prince and the Panther coaching staff are banking on the young core of players to begin making an impact.