Panthers open three-game stretch on road with Pumas - Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

Scoreboard

Kentucky Wesleyan College football coach Brent Holsclaw sees many similarities between his Panthers and Saint Joseph's College.

KWC travels to Rensselear, Ind., to face the Pumas at 1 p.m. CDT today in a Great Lakes Football Conference contest.

Saint Joseph's (3-5, 2-0 GLFC) is on a three-game losing skid while KWC (1-6, 1-0) is on a two-game slide.

"The kids are excited about being 1-0 in conference," Holsclaw said. "Saint Joseph's has been really struggling offensively, and they've had trouble in the red zone. It's about as evenly matched as you can get.

"Both teams shoot themselves in the foot offensively, and both play good defense."

The Panthers dropped a 24-12 decision to visiting Grand View last week in a game where KWC "played as bad as we could play offensively," Holsclaw said.

Against the Pumas, the Panthers plan to bring back the offense they used early this season against Murray State and Southwest Baptist.

KWC will rely more on running the football, using Vince Lalonde at quarterback in the wildcat and running more of an option-type offense.

The look gives Lalonde more of an opportunity to showcase his athletic abilities and simplifies blocking schemes for the offensive lineman.

"We're having trouble blocking people," Holsclaw said. "We're going to focus more on running the football."

Defensively, the Panthers face an offense that averages 154 yards rushing and 150 yards passing per game. The Pumas feature running backs Jashon Banks (121 attempts, 76 yards per game) and Terrence Freeman (101 attempts, 44 ypg) in their offense.

The contest opens a three-game road swing for KWC as the Panthers close out the regular season with four consecutive conference games.

Holsclaw said the Panthers still need to learn how to win close games. The team still has goals, but time is starting to run out on 2009.

"You only get one chance per week," Holsclaw said. "We've got four opponents to go through to get to 5-5. We can play with every team we have left, but we have to start performing on offense."

Print Friendly Version