Panthers seeking 1st playoff berth in 15 years

When Porterville football coach Rick Stewart first received the request from Cesar Chavez to move this week’s matchup from Halloween to tonight, he thought it sounded too good to be true.

Stewart and his team reasoned the Titans’ decision to prepone the game could only help the Panthers while inversely hurting tonight’s opponent.

Prior to last week’s 64-0 shutout loss to Tulare Union, the Panthers had already begun to focus on Chavez and thus have had four extra days to prepare for the Titans — five if you count Saturday’s two-hour practice.

It isn’t as if the Panthers (3-4) had forgotten about Union, though. The undefeated Redskins had won their first six games by an average of 35 points before facing Porterville. 

Stewart opted instead to rest nine aching starters against Union and figured last week’s time would be better spent in preparing for the 3-4 Titans.

“I don’t think we were gonna beat Union,” Stewart said. “Even if we put our entire lineup in, we could’ve made it more competitive, sure. But we’re not at that level yet.”

While the Union game still loomed, the Panthers’ coaching staff generally hardwired Chavez into their players’ heads, creating for each a DVD breaking down the Titans’ every play.

“We know Chavez better than Chavez knows Chavez,” Stewart said. “We had the extra week to prepare for them and that gives them only three days to get ready for us.

“They can’t get ready for our offense in three days,” Stewart continued. “And we’ve got some wrinkles we’re throwing at them they haven’t seen yet.”

Stewart’s players are all on board with the strategy.

“We know exactly what they’re doing,” linebacker Sid Perez said. “We’ll take away what they like to do.”

Free safety Josh Callanan said Chavez likes to “run, run, run and when they really need to, they pass.”

Apparently, the defense has done its homework — they know they need to stop the Titans’ top two rushers, Mathew MacAnas and Rencel Petersen. The two shifty backs have combined for 1,100 of Chavez’s 1,500 rushing yards so far.

“25 likes to bounce it outside and once he boxes it out, he just picks up speed, so we’ve gotta prevent that,” Perez said.

Stewart has already announced he’ll vote for MacAnas into first team all-league this season.

“He’s lightning in a bottle,” Stewart said. “If we can stop him, we win the game. Next to Jontell Reedom, he may be the next best running back, so we have a special defensive scheme just for him.”

Senior cornerback Daniel Rueger was injured last season when they lost to Chavez, 44-26.

“We were near the goal line about to score and we fumbled it,” Rueger said, “and the (Chavez) guy was right there and caught it and ran it for the touchdown. It was our senior night.”

Add payback to the list of motivations for Porterville. Another one is that a win would put Porterville in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

At the top of the list, however, might be the fact that none of the Panthers will be taking Halloween off this year, despite the schedule change.

“We’re all going to the Granite Hills game on Friday (to scout the next week’s opponent),” Perez said.

No partying, no costumes. Just business as usual.