The word “focus” has been used a lot over the last couple of weeks when discussing the Petal Panthers, and head coach Marcus Boyles said his team, especially his starters, did what they had to do last week against a winless Jim Hill team to come home with another region win.
Petal scored 21 points in the first quarter and 14 in the second to take a 35-0 lead by halftime.
Now, the Panthers are charged with the tasked of focusing in on Meridian junior quarterback Tevarrius Adams, who likes to scramble around behind the line of scrimmage until he finds an open receiver down field.
To add another wrinkle to Friday’s game, it’s the last home game of the regular season for Petal, as it’ll have two more road games left to play after this week. Of course, Petal can host one or more games in the playoffs if it sets up right.
“It’s different, definitely, so we’ll stress that to our kids,” Boyles said of his team’s last home game coming early in the season. “If we want another home game, then we need take care of business this week.”
The Wildcats come to town with a 2-6 overall record and a 1-4 record in Region 3-6A, and that’s strange to see from a Meridian football team. Even after watching film of Meridian, it’s surprising to Boyles.
“They’ve had a really tough schedule, and (the record) is (surprising),” he said. “When you watch them on film, they still look like Meridian. They still have good athletes and they’re big up front, so they still look like Meridian.”
Adams, who leads the team in carries to go along with his passing statistics, can hurt teams with both his feet and arm. When Adams drops back to pass, defensive backs normally have to guard for more than the usual amount because Adams likes to scramble around until a receiver opens up.
Boyles’ is main concern is when his players are in coverage and they see Adams scrambling, he doesn’t want those players to try and make a play because it’ll allow the receiver to find an open hole in the defense.
“They have design runs for him, and he does a really good job of that, but when he drops back to pass, he wants to try to throw the football,” Boyles said. “Even when you get pressure on him, he’s going to scramble out of there and look down field.”
Opponents are scoring 37 points per game on Meridian, but it got a significant boost when senior Deuntra Hyman came back from an injury last week. Boyles said the Ole Miss commit made a big difference to the defense in just one game against Brandon. The Bulldogs scored 23 points on the Wildcats.
“They have (given up some points) and I really don’t know why,” Boyles said. “They have the guy back and he played last week against Brandon. That immediately made them better on the defensive line, and he is a good-looking kid.”
