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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Panthers welcome familiar face to town Friday
Published October 22, 2009
GERONIMO — The Navarro Panthers (6-1 overall, 2-0 in District 28-2A) will try to hang on to first place on Friday as a district rival — the Kenedy Lions (2-5, 0-2) — comes calling at Erwin-Lee Field.
The Panthers currently sit atop the District 28-2A standings along with Karnes City (6-1, 2-0). The two will meet on Nov. 6 in the regular season finale.
Coming off a dramatic 29-28 win over Poth, Navarro hopes to build on its momentum. But head coach Les Goad knows there is work to be done.
“There are definitely some things we need to improve on,” he said. “Poth did a great job taking advantage of things that were hurting us.”
Kenedy is led by Lin Havron, who served as Navarro’s head coach between 1998 and 2006. Havron coached against the Panthers as an assistant at Comfort for the last two years, but it will be the first time he has brought a team into Geronimo as a head coach.
“It will be fun,” Havron said of his return. “I still keep in touch with many of the kids and I love the people there.
“It will be David and Goliath for sure. I’ll do my best to prepare our kids for the game and I promise we will play hard.”
Kenedy has shown improvement in Havron’s first season at the school. They broke a 25-game losing streak in their season opener and have already scored more points this season (81) than in their previous two.
The Panthers beat the Lions 62-0 last year and 66-6 in 2007. Goad expects to see a different Kenedy team this year.
“They are much improved,” he said. “They’re not over the hump yet but I expect them to be a stiffer test than we’ve had against them before.”
One of the standouts for Kenedy is Havron’s son, Jake. The junior has 39 catches for 530 yards and five touchdowns. He also lines up as a defensive back and has three interceptions.
Another transfer from Comfort is starting quarterback Rhett Bell. He has thrown for 931 yards and 11 touchdowns. He is also their leading rusher with 229 yards.
Goad says they have “real size on both sides of the ball.”
Kenedy will run an offense that is a mixture of what Havron ran at Navarro and what Comfort operates.
“They throw a lot of bubble screens and spread the ball around,” he said. “They’ll use (Jake) Havron some at quarterback and for some double passes.
“They throw quite a bit and that is an area we’ve had some trouble with at times this year.”
Defensively, Goad says Kenedy played very well against Poth two weeks ago. They run a split formation against most teams but Goad says “they usually run more of a 50 against offenses like ours.”
If the Panthers are successful against that defense, their fans may get to see a little history. Running back Jacob Garcia needs just 141 yards to become the school’s all-time leading rusher.
He will have to contend with an ankle sprain, however. Goad says Garcia suffered the injury against Poth, managing to score the Panthers’ final touchdown and game-winning two-point conversion along the way, but is “not 100 percent.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
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