The T.R. Miller Tiger football team will hit the road for the second straight week and for their second straight region game this Friday night when they will travel to face the Excel Panthers.
T.R. Miller comes into the game with the Panthers with a 2-0 record after downing Opp last week on the road. The Panthers are 1-1 this season are coming off a 51-22 region loss at Bayside Academy last week.
As for the game against Opp Friday night, Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said he was just pleased to come away with a win.
“I was really pleased with getting the win over Opp because they really have a good team,” Riggs said. “They are very physical. For us to go over there and get the victory was really, really good. It was kind of what I thought it was going to be in a hard-fought and a tough game. I think Opp will prove to have a good team and I think they will win a few games down the road. Really, I am just proud about going over there and getting the victory because we were in a pretty tough situation over there.”
Riggs said one of the factors in the game was turnovers.
“Turnovers were a factor especially down there in the second quarter,” Riggs said. “We also made some good third down plays on defense and forced them to punt when they had third down and three or five to go. We just didn’t do a whole lot on offense in the second half though. We had the lead at halftime, but we didn’t do a lot in the second half. After they scored, we had a good kickoff return but we fumbled the ball and we can’t do that. I think though, if you go to one of the better teams in our region and get a win, you have to feel good about there. There were some good things, but a lot of other things we need to work on to get better.”
As for the game this week, T.R. Miller is 3-0 against Excel winning last year in Brewton 62-6. In the three meetings, T.R. Miller has outscored the Panthers 168-13.
Riggs noted running backs for the Panthers No. 5 Dekota Welker, No. 12 Tworminthae Parker and No. 24 Montrelle Hands are all good skill backs for the Panthers. No. 11 James Hudson leads the Panthers at the quarterback position.
“As for Excel this week, they look to be a much-improved team, especially on offense,” Riggs said. “We have been kind of impressed with their offensive line and they have three good running backs. They can put the ball in the air this year and have some pretty good folks to throw it to after struggling with that last year. They really have made some progress with that.”
Defensively, Riggs said the first thing you notice is how big Excel is.
“Their defensive front is pretty big and that is always an issue to deal with,” he said. “We also recognize that they play very well at home and we have to go over there and deal with that. We better get our act together and be prepared when we go over there. The thing that scares you with teams like Excel is that they have enough skill to cause you some problems. They have some guys that can make you miss. It is pretty obvious their team speed has picked up. You can tell they are stronger and did a lot of work in the weight room this off season. Also, this is their coach’s second year over there.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Panther Stadium in Excel.