Erie-Prophetstown<\/a> has made itself into a team to be reckoned with in the Three Rivers Conference\u2019s Rock Division. A year ago, the Panthers went 6-4 overall and finished 3-2 and in third place in league play, two games behind first-place Rockridge and one behind runner-up Newman.<\/p>\nBoth of those clubs once again look to be the teams to beat in the Rock Division, along with a resurgent Riverdale squad that reached the postseason for the first time since 2011 last fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always our goal to get to the playoffs, and we\u2019ve been there the last two years in a row,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cThese last two years, we\u2019ve finished in the middle (of the TRAC Rock race). Now, we want to take the next step and be there with teams like Rockridge and Newman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still a work in progress. We\u2019re not quite there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with competing for a conference championship, E-P not only wants to book a third straight trip to the postseason, but to take the next step there as well and pick up the program\u2019s first playoff victory since 2021, one of only two times the Panthers have gotten beyond the first round (the other coming in 2013).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group wants to do things [in the postseason] that their teammates were not able to accomplish,\u201d said Whitebread, whose club fell 37-12 to Aurora Christian in last year\u2019s opening round. \u201cThey\u2019ve got that on their minds this year, and they\u2019re hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Panthers do have some holes to fill prior to their Aug. 21 season opener against reigning Three Rivers Mississippi champion and 3A quarterfinalist Monmouth-Roseville, namely in their passing game.<\/p>\n
Quarterback and first team All-Three Rivers Rock standout Keegan Winckler (2,300 total yards, 17 touchdown passes, nine rushing TDs) is among the players lost to graduation along with his top two receivers, first team All-Conference pick Gaven Adams and Connor Keegan, who combined for over 1,250 receiving yards and 15 TDs.<\/p>\n
However, E-P does return the first team All-TRAC Rock trio of senior linemen Derek Naftzger and Caleb Reymer and linebacker Evan Steimle, along with a top rushing threat in second team All-Conference back Tristan Hovey (1,007 yards, five TDs).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got four of our five starting offensive linemen back, and I felt that we did a good job of running the ball and with our pass protection,\u201d Whitebread said. \u201cReturning those guys and a top running back, we feel good about that, and we also return all of the guys on our defensive line, which we feel good about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all starts up front, and I think our foundation there is very good. It\u2019ll make the job easier for our running backs and linebackers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of filling Winckler\u2019s shoes at quarterback, Whitebread will look to Steimle, who ran out of the E-P backfield as a halfback last season.<\/p>\n
Still, the goal remains the same: looking to build on the success of the last two years and continue the Panthers\u2019 upward trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to continue to improve and play better like we did last year,\u201d said Whitebread. \u201cWe want to continue to play better on both sides of the ball. We bring back a lot of guys with playoff experience from the last two years, and we definitely have some lofty goals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first three years of Tyler Whitebread\u2019s Erie-Prophetstown head coaching tenure has seen gradual progress with each season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,982,6341,304,983],"class_list":["post-265282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-prophetstown-preps","tag-fnd-sauk-valley","tag-high-school-football","tag-sauk-valley-front-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}