By Jake Fox
August 24, 2012
Pittsville– The Pittsville Panthers and Marathon Red Raiders will get their football seasons underway with a 7 PM kickoff in Marathon tonight. Both teams made the playoffs last season with 5-4 records overall and look to factor in with the likes of Edgar and Stratford for this year’s conference championship.
At quarterback for Pittsville will be senior David Sojka who was fourth in conference in passing yards in 2011. Sojka will look to bring more balance to a Panther offense that featured running back Eric Hahn who had 13 total touchdowns last season. Looking to give Sojka some reliable targets will be Hahn out of the backfield, as well as Jared Fox, Sawyer Ladick, Nathan Dupee and Kyle Kolar. Paving the way for Hahn to continue piling up the yards (and Sojka to stay upright) will be a senior dominated offensive line consisting of: Olie Voight, Nathan Potter, Andy Fox, Gabe Hautala and Sam Solytycki. Also expected to see action on the line will be Cole Robus and Luke Hardinger.
On the defensive side of the football, things went well for the Panthers in 2011. As far as scoring defense, the Panthers ranked second in conference by a comfortable margin. Only Edgar (who gave up an unheard of 32 points all season), had better stats in the only defensive stat that really matters. Expect a defense anchored by linebackers Eric Hahn, Eddie Kleinhenz and Kyle Kolar to pick up right where they left off last season. Another year of experience should pay off for the defensive line which features James Lassa, Andy Fox, Sam Solytycki and Nathan Potter. The Panther backfield will consist in some order of Jared Fox, Sawyer Ladick, Nathan Dupee, Brad Wesely. Nick Krohn, Brad Brux, Cole Robus, Olie Voight and Luke Hardinger will also probably see some time on defense for the Panthers.
