THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Permian High School Athletics

Through its first two games of the regular season, the Permian football team has a total of 22 offensive possessions. Here is a breakdown of how those drives resulted for the Panthers: >> Ten touchdowns. >> Four punts. >> One victory formation. >> One failed fourth-down conversion. >> One incompletion as time expired in the second quarter. >> Five fumbles. In two games, the Panthers (2-0) have committed a total of nine fumbles — losing six of them. Blake Feldt and the rest of the Panthers know the trend of winning, while committing multiple turnovers per contest isn’t going to last long. “No. 1, we’ll get beat by someone who we shouldn’t get beat by,” Feldt said. “No. 2, it will keep us from beating a big-time, good Class 6A football team. Against an excellent team (turnovers) will get us beat.” Permian senior quarterback Steve Steen, who has lost one fumble in each of the two regular-season contests, said turnovers are immediate problem that needs to be remedied. The Panthers’ final seven games are against teams with a current combined 9-5 record. “It feels like half of our drives are touchdowns and the other half are turnovers,” said Steen, who rushed for a season-high 110 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries during a 42-14 victory over El Paso Franklin in Week Two. “I don’t feel like there are many teams that are able to stop this offense — other than the Permian Panthers. We are stopping ourselves a lot of the time with turnovers or missed assignments.” Despite the fumbles, Permian’s offense has continued to move the ball down the field. The Panthers are averaging 7.8 yards per play. They have supplied 849 yards of total offense with a majority of those yards — 686 of them — coming on the ground. “We’ve done a lot of good things, but we have to quit turning the ball over,” Feldt said. “The thing that is disappointing about that is that was our focus last week going into the Franklin game. That still hasn’t gotten fixed. We have chance to be a pretty decent team, but to do that we’ve got to cure that ailment. And we’ve got to do it in a hurry.” Steen said Permian must bring a sense of urgency to hold onto the ball as the team makes its first road trip. A year ago, the Panthers committed nine turnovers at home and on the road. The Panthers travel to El Paso Eastwood (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Trooper Stadium. “We are playing a good El Paso Eastwood team and we can’t expect to turn the ball over as many times as we did and still expect to beat good teams,” Steen said. >> CONSTANT PRESSURE: Permian’s main goal in its base 3-4 defense is apply constant stress in the opposing backfield. The Panthers have recorded seven tackles for a loss, six sacks and 15 hurries. Those efforts have helped Permian’s defense post 20 plays of negative yards. Opposing teams have averaged 19 points per contest. “We are playing really well — up front especially,” Permian junior linebacker Andy Notley said. “We are gelling really well and getting pressure on the quarterback is a big part of it. It really helps our secondary out, because they don’t have to stay in coverage very long. As long as we get a lot of pressure (on the quarterback), that’s something that we can keep getting better at.” Permian defensive coordinator Vance Washington believes the defense is headed in the right direction. The Panthers have allowed a total of 79 rushing yards on 60 carries — an average of 1.3 yards per carry. However, Washington said the defense is far from a final product. Austin Vandegrift and El Paso Franklin have thrown for a total of 348 yards against Permian’s heavy man-to-man coverage. “We are playing well, but we have a long way to go,” he said. “I thought last week (against El Paso Franklin) we played better. This week we have a big challenge with Eastwood. We are trying to clean up technique work. We aren’t busting assignments. It’s technique that we have to work on.” Notley knows the Panthers have a tall order against the Troopers. El Paso Eastwood is coming off a convincing 67-21 victory over El Paso Bel Air in which the Troopers sophomore quarterback Chris Castaneda threw for 285 yards and six touchdowns. El Paso Eastwood senior quarterback and Texas Tech baseball commit Seth Ochoa will also see playing time. El Paso Eastwood is averaging 625 yards and 49 points per game. “They have a really good quarterback and they are really good up front,” Notley said about the Troopers. “We are just going to play as hard as we can. I’m sure that our coaches are going to put us in a good position to win. They are going to have a good game plan.” >> UNDERCARD: Monahans JV team defeated the Permian Freshman Black Team 13-0, while the Monahans Freshman Team beat Permian’s Freshman White Team 32-20. Permian JV Black faces Midland Lee at 5 p.m. Thursday at Grande Communications, while the Permian JV White meets Odessa High at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ratliff. Permian’s Freshmen Black and White teams have open weeks.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Permian High School Athletics

PANTHERS MAINTAIN FOCUS ON CLEANING UP FUMBLES AFTER WEEK TWO

ROYAL MCGREGOR

Odessa American | 9/12/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Jacob Ford