It’s not been an easy road for Nease so far this season. The Panthers fell to visiting White 48-13 in its district opener last Friday night.
Nease has been dealing with some injuries and having to rotate positions but focusing on fundamentals is key, said Panthers coach Tim Krause.
“While we have a number of injuries this year, our focus point as we reach during the middle of the season is to continue to improve fundamentally,” Krause said in an email. “The group that we are playing with has continued to play hard and to fight for each other, but we need to improve in a number of fundamental areas to be successful.”
Nease (0-4, 0-1 District 4-6A) will go on the road and face Creekside Friday at 7 p.m. The Knights are averaging 38 points per game and are coming off a 72-40 win over Episcopal.
“On the defensive side, we need to do a better job with our eye discipline and tackling,” Krause said. “Creekside is a well-coached offensive team that will force us to fit runs properly, tackle well in space, and have great eye discipline on vertical routes and play-action. In order to play a complete game defensively, we will need to improve in those areas throughout the week.”
Many of the issues plaguing the Panthers are beyond the team’s control, but Krause is encouraged by the team’s dedication and willingness to work and focus on what’s ahead.
“Despite our struggles early in the year, our kids have continued to practice hard and worked to improve,” he said. “Our coaches have worked, especially this week, on focusing on the things that we can control and being a better team fundamentally. Our senior class has a number of fighters who will continue to work to make this an ascending football team by the home stretch of district play in a few weeks.”
