Panthers put streak on line

With Palo Verde and Arbor View both running the same offense, Aggies coach Dan Barnson said some were calling tonight’s game the “double-wing bowl.”

A simpler name would be the Northwest League football championship game.

Third-ranked Arbor View (8-0, 4-0 Northwest), which has never defeated the Panthers in six tries, travels to No. 7 Palo Verde (6-3, 4-0) at 7 tonight with the league title on the line.

“We’re ready,” Aggies senior tight end Rasheed Parks said. “There’s no pressure on us. We feel like we’ve got a good game plan and we’re stoked for this game.”

Palo Verde has won four of the last five Northwest titles and is a consistent power in the Sunset Region.

Arbor View has emerged this season as a legitimate contender to unseat the Panthers.

And though Barnson stressed the team was approaching it as just another game, he conceded his players are well aware of what is on the line.

“They know. The kids know,” Barnson said. “They’ve had a good week of practice so far, and that’s all we can ask is for them to come out, work hard and prepare and do their thing. And we know they’ll show up, and I know we’ll show up.”

Though both teams run the double wing, Palo Verde has strayed from the base offense a bit this season. The Panthers have many shotgun sets and even a couple of formations with wide receivers, a far cry from the normally bunched double-wing scheme.

“It’s about time we added a few wrinkles to it,” Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost said. “With our personnel, it’s kind of why we did that.”

Rost’s son, Parker, has passed for 1,065 yards and 14 touchdowns. And while the coach concedes it’s nice to be able to throw the ball at times, he says Palo Verde is still the same power football team it has been in recent years.

“It’s definitely a plus that we have a few formations we can get into, a two-minute drill type thing,” Darwin Rost said. “But we’re still going to do what we do, and that’s control the ball and play great defense.”

The Panthers struggled to a 1-3 start but have won five straight. And an improved run game has been key in the resurgence. Palo Verde averaged 158.8 rushing yards and 16 pass attempts in the first four games.

Since that time, the Panthers have averaged 328.4 rushing yards, and 6.8 pass attempts.

“We’ve been running the ball a lot better than we did early in the year,” Darwin Rost said.

Lee Griggs has led the way with five straight 100-yard games. For the season, he has 851 rushing yards and nine TDs.

Arbor View, meanwhile, has pounded the ball all season. The Aggies have rushed for an average of 399.1 yards and have attempted only 25 passes.

Anthony Smith leads the way with 561 yards and four TDs, but five other backs have at least 308 yards. Six backs have led the Aggies in rushing in seven contested games.

Arbor View’s senior-dominated offensive line has been a big reason for the team’s success.

“The senior line play has helped a lot, because it makes everything easier,” Parks said. “The backs just do their thing. We can put any back back there, honestly.”