After their bye-week last week and with extra time to prepare, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers (0-2) will travel to Grand Junction on Friday to take on Grand Junction Central (1-1).
The Panthers will look to stop a Warriors’ offense that rushed for 236 yards and threw for another 278 against Air Academy, and then rushed for 295 yards and passed for 154 against Vista PEAK Prep.
“It will be a balanced attack,” Panthers’ interim head coach Scott Conklin said of the Grand Junction Central offense.
However, the Warriors also gave up about a half-mile against Vista PEAK Prep – allowing the Bison to rush for 257 yards and pass for 477 – so Conklin has ideas on how the Panthers offense can operate.
“The outside is going to be there, and we worked hard this week on spreading it out and getting it outside the edge,” Conklin said. “Because it’s going to be hard to run up the middle against those boys. They’re big and strong and they blitz a lot.”
The Warriors offense brings a balanced attack, and Conklin expects the Panthers offense to do the same. While they may primary work the ground and attempt to get backs like Coby Baer to the edge, they’ll also allow senior quarterback Cordell Ridings to throw.
The Panthers have had a stretch of bad luck with the injury bug – with seven players out with what appear to be season ending injuries – so they will look to younger players to step up and fill the void.
M-CHS and Grand Junction Central will kick off on Friday at 7 p.m.