Last week was a tale of two halves for Petal after the Panthers defeated Hattiesburg 21-18.
The Panthers overcame a 12-0 deficit at the half to earn their season-opening win, which left Petal coach Allen Glenn with mixed feelings about his team’s performance.
“There were a lot of early mistakes,” Glenn said. “There were a lot of young guys who are not used to playing under the lights with our skill positions. Our defense controlled the line of scrimmage. I thought our defensive line play was exceptional. I thought our kids showed a ton of heart there in the second half.
“It was a game that I thought we didn’t capitalize early on some opportunities, but in the second half, I thought we kind of got it going offensively.”
One of the biggest keys to Petal’s win was having its offense run 75 plays, which kept the Tiger defense off the field. According to Glenn, that figure should have been higher since his offense had a sluggish start to the game.
“We want a lot of offensive snaps,” Glenn said. “We had a lot of three and outs early. We probably could have been up that 85-play range if we weren’t so bad offensively in the first half. We want to use our tempo to our advantage and get as many offensive snaps as we can.
“Overall, probably the biggest thing that I think we’ve got to improve is just being more efficient on first down. Defensively, I thought we played well all night, but on two of their touchdowns they got, we were in a great position to make a play on the ball, and we just didn’t make the play. If we make the play, then I don’t know if they score but maybe one time all night.”
This week the Panthers will face Brookhaven, which comes off a 21-16 loss to Lawrence County. Last season, Brookhaven finished the year 6-3 and reached the second round of the playoffs. Brookhaven and Petal were supposed to meet last year, but the game was canceled to COVID-19 issues.
Brookhaven’s quarterback Xavier Gayten is the key to the offense as he ran for 149 yards on 18 carries. Complimenting him in the backfield is running back Nathan Lewis, who ran for 84 yards and a touchdown.
“They are very athletic,” Glenn said. “I think their quarterback is a guy that can really hurt you. He’s a special athlete. Their running back is a special player as well. They are very well-coached. They are well-coached on the offensive line. They are definitely a run-heavy team. We’ll have to definitely play to our strengths up front and hopefully dictate the line of scrimmage from a defensive side.”
Glenn is unsure of how Brookhaven’s defense will look against Petal. This is because Lawrence County runs a Wing-T offense, which calls for a different defensive scheme than it would against Petal’s spread offense.
“Offensively, we are not sure what we are going to see,” Glenn said. “We feel like we have a decent understanding of what they are going to try and do defensively.
“They had Lawrence County last week, and they are a Wing-T, and we are not. They are probably going to line up a little differently to a Lawrence County team than they will us. We’ll have to figure out what they want to do early and try to attack it.”
Petal will travel to play Brookhaven at 7:30 p.m.
