MAGNET COVE — Magnet Cove football head coach Dean Adams and the Panthers are fired up coming off a shutout road victory in their season-opener against Gurdon 39-0 last week. The Panthers have some early season momentum going into Friday night facing 3A ranked Fordyce Redbugs to kick off Week 1 of Arkansas high school football in Redbug country.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Fordyce.

Coach Adams praised the Panthers’ defense last week to maintain a scoreless outing for the Go-Devils.

“I thought our guys on offense did a good job of adjusting to what they were giving us—Defense played very well. I was proud of our defense getting turnovers and keeping the shutout,” Adams said. The Panthers sparked offensively with multiple skill players propelling the execution for several trips across the goal line for touchdowns. The backfield of Angel Villezcas and Nehemiah Norwood powered the run game for the Panthers. Villezcas scored on 1 and 60-yard touchdown runs—while Norwood scored on a 20-yard TD. Both Villezcas and Norwood scored 2-point conversions as well. Aiden McKinney also ignited some positive yardage on the ground attack and had a 1-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion.

Quarterback Ethan Ramsey sparked in his role and completed a 45 yard touchdown pass reception to Isaac Tillery to excel for productive play as a receiver in the passing scheme for Magnet Cove.

These kinds of key play making ability from the Panthers are what Adams believes can factor in for a good year.

But, defensively was huge last week and Adams thought the defensive plays from Blaze Crutchfield recovering two fumbles and major takedowns for sacks by Colton Sulton and McKinney on third and fourth down situations really impacted a shutout road win. Also, the scrappy play of Jayden Mullins to force a fumble was effective.

But, this week the Panthers have a 3A juggernaut of Fordyce coming to the Cove. Fordyce comes into this year ranked as one of the top contenders and dominated Monticello 46-18 in their season opener.

Read more pregame story details in Thursday’s September 4 MDR newspaper edition.