The West Central Valley Wildcats football team will make their debut on the gridiron tonight against their conference rival, the Panorama Panthers. The Wildcats went 5-4 a season ago, and won their matchup with the Panthers handily from last season on homecoming, winning that game 49-14. Senior quarterback Nate Gerling had a stellar night for the Wildcats in that matchup from a year ago as he threw for 148 yards and a touchdown and went 6 for 13. He also rushed for 49 yards and had a touchdown on the ground as well.

For Panorama, it was more of a struggle a year ago as they finished the season 3-6 overall. Senior quarterback Cayden Van Meer will be behind center for the Panthers in the opening matchup tonight against the Wildcats. Van Meer threw for 1293 yards total last season with 14 TDs, and 64 rushing yards to go along with a touchdown on the ground.

I had a chance to catch up with West Central Valley head football coach Jim Lindsay. He describes keys to the game tonight against Panorama and what he is telling his guys going into the matchup with their conference rivals.

“Mike’s got some good athletes up there and I know that they’ll come in well coached. We got to set the tone early and be ready to go because they will be. It’s always exciting to open the season and then when you get the chance to open it with your arch rival, that tends to add to it. They’ve got some guys that can take it the distance on any play. You give them a little crease and they’re going to score. We have to contain their playmakers and make them drive it down the field. If they’re gonna score we have to make them earn it,” Lindsay said.

Kickoff is at 7 PM at West Central Valley High School. I will provide a score update after the game right here on K1079 and raccoonvalleyradio.com.