Following a pair of postseason upsets, the biggest test yet awaits the West Lowndes football team Friday night.
The Panthers (5-6) snuck into the MHSAA Class 1A playoffs as the third seed in their district and have since defeated Myrtle and Potts Camp, both away from home. West Lowndes is back home for the quarterfinals against Biggersville (9-1), which handed the Panthers a 46-8 defeat back in early September.
But that was then and this is now, and West Lowndes coach Anthony King is confident his team is a different bunch than the one that suffered that blowout loss more than two months ago.
“We’ve just been staying focused,” King said. “We’ve been playing real solid defense, we’ve been attacking the ball a lot better. We’ve been stopping the run a whole lot. We have to fix our pass coverage so we can support our offense better.”
The Panthers’ offense relies heavily on the run, and they have received solid production from a multitude of backs. Senior Gary Brewer, sophomore Kylan Ellis and junior Dekambi Evans Smart have all had success running the ball, as has junior quarterback Jonivan Edwards. King credited West Lowndes’ offensive line for opening lanes for that multi-pronged rushing attack.
The defensive front, led by sophomores Trence Robertson and Joseph Brooks, has also been a strength, and Ellis is also a standout on defense as a linebacker.
In the Panthers’ last meeting with Biggersville, West Lowndes fell behind 39-0 at halftime, thanks in large part to Lions stars Tre Gunn and Jathan Hatch. Gunn scored on a 59-yard punt return, a 74-yard run and receptions of 16 and 25 yards, and also intercepted two passes. Hatch found the end zone on touchdown runs of 40 and 65 yards.
“We have to try to contain (Gunn and Hatch),” King said. “We played some of our worst ball (against Biggersville), but we figured some things out in the loss. Being a No. 3 seed and getting a chance to host the No. 1 seed, you can’t ask for better.”
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