PETAL – It’s been an up and down start for Petal, starting the season 2-2 with a difficult non-region schedule. It doesn’t get much easier with Region 3-6A starting and the state’s No. 2 team coming to town.
The Panthers split with Pearl (5-0) last year, winning the regular season matchup before dropping the 6A South State Championship game. The Pirates would go on to lose the state championship to Clinton, but they have returned nearly every player from 2016.
“We know what Pearl is,” Petal coach Marcus Boyles said. “They beat us last year in south state, and most of those guys are back. We understand what we’re facing, we need a great week of practice and hopefully go out there on Friday night and execute the game plan.”
Like a lot of teams around the state, Petal is coming off an off week, and Boyles said his team accomplished everything he and the coaches wanted to accomplish, which includes a lot of work to the defense.
“I thought we worked on ourselves and got better,” Boyles said. “From a defensive standpoint, we cleaned up some missed tackles. We still have issues with missed assignments and linebacker reads. The main thing is missed assignments on defense and being better tacklers.”
Pearl’s resume is impressive so far. It has wins over Warren Central, Madison Central and Louisiana powerhouse Parkway, as well as huge victories over Brookhaven and Northwest Rankin.
Jake Smithhart has passed for 681 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions on 65 percent passing. As a team, the Pirates have rushed for 569 yards on 137 attempts – a 4.2-yard per carry average – while Johnny Winston leads the way with 319 rushing yards and three scores on 61 carries.
Boyles is impressed with Pearl’s balance on offense, but it’s all of the different formations that Pearl has that he’s focused on while watching film.
“They’ll be four-wide and one tight end, then two tight ends, so there are a lot different formations and personnel groups,” he said. “They’re very balanced as far as running and passing, and they take what you give them. They’re able to run the football, and they’ll keep running it. If that’s not working for them, then they have guys on the outside who can make plays so they’ll throw it on you.”
The Panthers will have to know their assignments to execute those calls against Pearl, Boyles added. That was a point of emphasis last week, and it will be again this week in practice.
Defensively, Pearl has held opponents 13 points per game, as Brookhaven, Northwest Rankin and Madison Central were all held to single digits.
“It’s just like last year,” Boyles said. “They’re really, really fast. That defensive line plays off blocks really well, the linebackers run to the football and the secondary, there aren’t a lot of holes out there to throw the football.”
When Petal has the opportunities to make big plays or move the chains, it’ll have to take advantage of those situations if it wants to see success against the Pirates.
“You can’t miss when you have the opportunity to make a big play against them,” Boyles added.
