The season gets under way Saturday evening for the Portal Panthers who are participating in the Erk Russell Classic for the fourth time in the past five years and playing in Paulson Stadium for the fifth-straight season as they take on Wheeler County at 6 p.m.
The Panthers are coming off a scrimmage last Friday against Vidalia in which head coach Jason McEachin saw some positive things he hopes carry into Saturday’s matchup.
“We feel good about some of the things we're getting done on both sides of the ball, but there's always the initial nervousness of new guys playing different positions,” McEachin said. We are interested to see when the lights come on and we kick it off in a real game how they will respond. Most of these guys have been in this atmosphere but not necessarily as a starter.”
One of the players taking his first varsity snap under the lights as a starter will be sophomore quarterback Omod Thomas.
“I have a lot of confidence in how Omod is playing right now,” McEachin said. “He did a really good job in the scrimmage game of just distributing the ball, exactly like we asked. We bobbled one snap under center, which was the last play we ran. We did throw a couple interceptions, but one of them was one where a player went down with an injury, so the defensive back was able to pick it. The other was on a play that I believe was a defensive pass interference that didn't get called on a deflected ball. We pitched the football in the option well and he's doing a good job of managing the snap count. He's a calm level-headed kid and that's exactly what we would like in a quarterback.”
This week the Panthers will take on a Wheeler County team who went 11-1, including a perfect regular season mark before falling in the state third round of the state playoffs.
“They're coming off the best season in school history,” McEachin said. “They have good coaches and good players. They're going to be really good at running the football, and they base out of the same defense than we do. So, there's some familiar familiarity there, but they have a couple good senior players that we have to be aware of where they are and what they're doing because they're going to make a difference in the game. Based on the roster we're looking at, they also starting several sophomores just like we are. They're going to have some young guys stepping into some big roles after they lost some key seniors. I have full confidence that they are going to be a very tough task because of the coaches and players they have.”
Portal and Wheeler County kick off the Erk Russell Classic Saturday at 6:00. Tickets can be purchased at Portal Middle/High for $10 Tickets at the gate are $15.
