Young football Panthers open on the road

The Berwick Panthers will begin their regular season Thursday when they travel to Houma to face Vandebilt Catholic.
The Panthers come into the 7 p.m. contest after scrimmaging Central Catholic a week ago at Nicholls State Univ-ersity in Thibodaux.
“Both teams got a lot of live reps for the first time, and our team’s fairly young so I think it was beneficial that we were able to get some reps for the first time in a live situation,” Berwick coach Mike Walker said.
Berwick’s first-team touchdowns in the scrimmage came via a Jayden Milton short run and a long pass from Cru Bella to Kaeden Thomas. Andre Engleton and Zack Gonzales scored on long touchdown runs for the Panthers’ second team.
Heading into this week, Walker said the Panthers are working on shoring up their pass protection, something he said is a typical task early in the season. He also said they need to improve their tackling, which will come with more reps.
The Panthers came out of last week’s scrimmage fairly healthy.
“Nothing more than some bumps and bruises,” Walker said.
Berwick’s opponent this week, Vandebilt Catholic, scrimmaged Terrebonne a week ago.
“They’re pretty good on defense,” Walker said. “They play hard. They play sound, and they’re physical up front on both sides of the ball.”
Walker said the Terriers utilize a spread offense with two backs, while on defense, they run a 3-4 look.
The Berwick coach said his team would have to get their running game going on offense and try to slow the Terrier’s run attack.