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September 9, 2010

Anonymous The Times-Tribune The Times-Tribune Thu Sep 09, 2010, 11:08 AM EDT

CORBIN — By John Stepp For The Times-Tribune

With close games to Clay County and Johnson Central two of the past three weeks, spectators probably think Coach Wayne Mills and the Knox Central Panthers are happy to see the Class A Williamsburg Yellow Jackets on their schedules for this Friday. According to Mills, that is not the case.

“Williamsburg is a good football team. Coach Jerry Herron is one of the best coaches around,” said Mills. “He gets more out of his kids than any other coach I know. His kids know how to play.”

The Panthers were heavy favorites when the teams met last season, but the Jackets scored 46 points on the Panthers in the near upset. This season, Williamsburg will try to finish the deal and knock off the seemingly bigger and stronger Knox Central.

“Knox Central is a well-coached football team and they run a balanced attack,” Williamsburg coach Jerry Herron said. “They are a very good football team and I believe they have to be one of the top five teams in Class 4A.

“We’re playing well, but we still have a lot of inexperienced kids, but we are improving each week and that’s what is important,” he added. “The key for us is to not worry about their size and just go out and execute our game plan. We need to line up, be solid and go forward. If we do that, we’ll have a good outcome.”

Mills said he believes the Yellow Jackets will give his team another tough game Friday.

“Williamsburg probably feels like they should have won that game last year. They had us down and we had to come back to win,” said Mills. “It became a shootout, and both teams were making plays. We don’t want that to happen to us again this year.”

The game poses as a classic matchup between the high powered offense of Williamsburg versus the stingy defense of Knox Central. Despite losing three-year starting quarterback Ryan Moses, the Jackets are led by another top gunslinger in Ethan Powers (486 yards passing, 212 rushing). Led by Cody Diamond and Tyler Grubb, the Panthers’ front four will look to contain Powers, and shut down the Jackets’ offense.

“We feel like our front four is the anchor of our defense. Those guys have been playing well for us, and we need to continue to get that from them,” said Mills. “If we can rush four and drop seven, we should be able to do a pretty good job of containing their offense.”

The Panthers’ offense isn’t too shabby itself, featuring a balanced attack. Sophomore wide receiver Jeffrey Canady led the Knox Central offense last week with 205 yards on nine catches. Canady and company may be hitting their stride at this point in the season.

“We were pleased with our offense last week against Johnson Central. They have been one of the best teams in 5A for the past couple seasons, and we had them off balance on defense,” said Mills. “I felt like Jonathan Barger played like a champion, and we got some hard running from our three backs — (Jonathan) Turpin, Tyler Bailey and Jonathan Gist. Canady really challenged himself this week, and he came up big for us, too.”

Perhaps the biggest obstacle for the Panthers this week will be overcoming their difficult loss against Johnson Central, especially after some controversial calls.

“Last week was a tough loss for us. We were up 22-14 in the fourth, and they score and tie it up. We come back down to their 10-yard line and get a holding penalty,” said Mills. “Our kids put too much time and effort in for something like that to happen. We have to keep our heads up and bounce back this week. We can’t let that affect us.”

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