New Home vs Panhandle Playoff Preview

Now to dive into New Home taking on the #8 Panhandle Panthers. Panhandle is a typical Coach Ashley team that plays disciplined, physical football. Their QB Broxton Robinson is one of the top dual threat QB’s in the 806. Caden Armes who transferred in from Gruver is absolutely electric with the ball in his hands and Rush Waltersheid with his knack for finding the end zone is a great compliment to Robinson in the running game. Panhandles ability to test a defenses discipline and punish them when they make a mistake is why they come in averaging 50.3 points a game. This is a team that snapped Stratford’s 27 game regular season unbeaten streak earlier this year and went toe to toe with Sunray before the Bobcats pulled away in the 2nd half.

This is obviously a tough matchup for the Leopards but I can assure you it’s one that Panhandle wasn’t excited to draw in bi-district either. The saying goes “styles make fights” and this is definitely a matchup where the strengths of the Leopards matchup very well to counter the strengths of the Panthers. We will start on defense where the Leopards are anchored by arguably the best Linebacking core in all of class 2A. Colby Cook, Ryder Starkey and Ty Dutton play fast, disciplined football and when they get to the ball carrier they flat out finish. Throw Brayson Beck (who gets better and better every week) into that run support and the Leopards have the ability to force Panhandle into obvious passing situations where you do not want to be with ball hawks Cooper Brown and Jake Ferguson on the backside of the Leopard secondary.

Offensively the Leopards will be going against a stout Panhandle defense who has allowed a TD or less in half of their games this year. The beautiful thing though for Leopard fans is we can go back to the Panthers week 9 matchup with Sunray to find the blueprint for success. In that matchup Sunray QB Armando Lujan threw the ball 39 times for over 400yds and 5 TD’s. At first glance it’s easy to say “that’s just what #3 Sunray does” and to take nothing away from what the Bobcats have accomplished running their Sun-Raid offense but the Leopards boast an equal arsenal of weapons. QB Caleb Cook can spin the ball as well as any QB in the State and the WR/TE group of Colby Cook, Jake Fogerson, Cooper Brown and Parker Liles give the Leopards a stable of weapons to attack the Panther secondary with. We saw a glimpse into that firepower in the 2 minute drill before halftime last week vs Olton and tomorrow night I expect we will see the Leopards start firing much earlier.

Whether you are a Panther fan, a Leopard fan or maybe just a fan of great football make your way to Canyon tomorrow at 4pm to Happy State Bank Field as it is going to be one of the best bi-district matchups around. My heart wants to give a prediction to counter my good friend Kale Steed’s prediction but instead I’ll close with this. If you are a Panhandle Panther fan and your offense is able to stay on the field, facing 3rd and 4 or less most of the night with a big play or 2 worked in you feel really good about your chances. For Leopard fans if you see the defense forcing Panhandle into 3rd and 5+ and the offense slinging the ball around getting it to the playmakers in space, you have to like your chances. Either way we are in for a great football game, one you hate to have to see either teams season end with!