Gio Livingston, South Medford football

Putting a loss behind you as quickly as possible can be a test for any team and for South Medford, at least this week, that short-term memory will be especially critical as the Panthers lose one day of preparation when they hit the road to face Sprague on Thursday night.

The good news for South Medford is all hope certainly was not lost in last week’s loss to No. 9 South Salem, it was just a night where the other team made more plays and gave the Panthers an opportunity for a good look in the mirror.

“We had a tough game against South Salem — a team that deserves to be in the top-10 — so not all is lost,” said South Medford head coach Bill Singler. “We still have a lot of work to do in front of us, and I think we learned a lot about ourselves with the loss. There’s certainly areas for us to improve in, although it’s a short week to correct that stuff.”

Given the circumstances, the main focus in this short week leading up to the South/Central Football Conference game for the Panthers (3-1, 1-1 SCFC) has been directed more inward than absolute scheming for the Olympians (1-3, 1-1).

“It is different having to play on Thursday,” said Singler. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel for this game. I think we’ve looked at ourselves and we did some really good things on both sides of the ball against South Salem, it’s just that we didn’t do enough of them.”

Even with South Medford unable to capitalize on a few opportunities against the Saxons, it was still a 10-minute game with one quarter to play, but the Panthers couldn’t get the defensive stand they needed or the quick-striking offensive retaliation that might have saved time for more of a comeback.

“When we had opportunities, we seemed to let them go,” said Singler. “Whether it was not catching the ball on interceptions or recovering a fumble when the ball’s on the ground, and then on offense making a couple big plays and having them called back we just missed several opportunities. I think we shot ourselves in the foot a lot in that game, but good teams will do that to you.”

South Medford’s running game wasn’t extraordinary against the Saxons, stacking up a bunch of limited gains against a handful of big runs, but 250 yards is still well above the average night for many teams and quarterback Colby Schwartz was able to connect on a few nice receptions by Mike Duclos and Ryder Scheid.

The Panthers enter Thursday’s contest averaging 302 yards on the ground and 412 overall, with Bridger Foss running 12 times for 93 yards to lead the team a week ago. Foss is averaging 10.7 yards per carry in racking up 321 yards overall, while Scheid continues to lead the team with 430 yards on 71 carries with five touchdowns.

Kameron Rague showed great burst and a hunger for the ball in his return last week from concussion protocols, and has averaged 6.7 yards per carry among a trio of lead runners for South Medford.

The Panthers fumbled twice in the fourth quarter last week and Schwartz was intercepted twice in the first half, including a pick-six, so they’ll look to shore up some of those issues this week against a Sprague squad allowing 42 points per game.

On defense, a few breakdowns in the secondary allowed for big scoring plays for South Salem, and the Saxons were able to break a couple big runs on broken assignments. Linebackers Gio Livingston and Caleb Morgan and defensive linemen Gabe Staszak and Grady McQuillan were able to apply steady pressure, and more of that will be needed Thursday if the Panthers hope to lower their average yards allowed (294).

Sprague running back Kenya Johnson, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior, spearheaded the charge toward the Olympians’ first win of the season last week at Roseburg by running for four touchdowns.

“Hopefully we can nullify him a little bit and not let him get into the flow of things too much and just go play good, solid defense,” Singler said of Johnson. “We’ve just got to keep teams from making the big play. If teams are going to score, we certainly want them to have to work at it. We don’t want them to throw long passes for touchdowns or have long runs for big plays. We need to do a better job in that area.”

Quarterback Dukatti Witherspoon (6-3, 210) provides another physical presence in the backfield but the Olympians found every way they could to put the ball in Johnson’s hands during their 40-36 comeback victory. Johnson also shifted into position as a wildcat quarterback in short-yardage and goal-line situations.

With the focus on the running game, Witherspoon was able to pass for a pair of touchdowns to provide some balance for Sprague.

“They’ve looked really good at times on film,” added Singler, noting an imposing group of defensive linemen. “They definitely have our attention. We need to get back on track and do the things that we do well and, hopefully, that’s going to be enough to go up and win the ballgame.”