Panthers, Whiteland meet for first time in sectional

By Rex Kirts

South and Whiteland have never met on the footbal field, a situation that will change when they tackle each other in the first round of the sectional at Whiteland.
Game time is 7 p.m.
South is looking for its first sectional championship since 2001. Kennedy won sectionals titles the last seven sectionals at Lowell.
Whiteland (7-2) is a growing-area school that moved up to class 5A in the past couple of years. Since little is known about the football program by South fans, Panther coach Kirk Kennedy offered up a comparison.
"They're like Bedford," he said. "They're very good."
South (2-7) has had outstanding success against Bedford historically, but in this season's opener Bedford shocked the Panthers in overtime, 29-27.
SOUTH AND WHITELAND have one common opponent this year, Martinsville. South was beaten soundly by the Artesians, but Whiteland won handily, 35-19.
"Whiteland is big, physical, powerful," Kennedy said. "They're basic in their scheme - they run a lot of wing-T with motion. They like to get the ball to the perimeter, and they'll also go up the middle.
"They like to establish the run. And they will lull you to sleep and throw play-action passes."
The offense Whiteland runs is similar to a couple of others the Panthers have seen and have had trouble with this season. They've had difficulty containing teams on the corners.
As he has all year, Kennedy is mostly concerned with how South plays. The concern rose after last week's loss at Perry Meridian, a 17-14 loss that came after the Panthers led 14-3 at halftime.
"We've got a shot (to beat Whiteland)," Kennedy said. "Our opponents are ourselves. We've got to get our offense and the kicking game going."
The Panthers played reasonably well on defense at Perry Meridian but gained only two first downs the second half and missed two makeable field goals.
PRACTICE THIS WEEK was good, Kennedy said. "Our attitude was still good. We had good tempo, good pace." And a game-like atmosphere surrounded kicking practice. Junior Drew Barlow has kicked well in practice all season and needs to transfer it to the game.
"I told Drew to focus on the process," Kennedy said. "The fundamentals, not worry about the results. Focus on the process."
The passing game has to improve, too. Quarterback Michael Bower excelled at the running game at Perry but completed just one of 11 passes. Getting into 3rd-and-long didn't help the overall scheme.
"We want to throw when we want to throw instead of when we have to throw," Kennedy said.
And they need to establish the ground game with a lot more authority than they did in the second half. There were few holes, and running backs were getting stuffed before they got started.
The winner of the game will play the winner of the Columbus East-Center Grove game in the second round.