Pauls Valley Practice Report

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>Get 25% Off Your Subscription By Entering Knight25 In The Coupon Code Area. Enjoy!</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Back in late June, we put out our preseason rankings for each class. And when they came out, we had Pauls Valley at #3 and that's where they've remained since the season has begun. This summer, it might have seemed crazy to have Pauls Valley as a top five team considering their history over the last two decades. 2004 was the last major winning season and the Panthers went 8-4. Ever since then, it's either been a losing season or a 5-5 or 6-5 record for the most part. But when we looked at the production and talent that the Panthers brought back, along with the talent that they added, we bought in on the Panthers immediately contending in Class 3A. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After a month of football, we stand by the Panthers being that serious contender in Class 3A. They dominated over a pair of Class 2A programs in the first two weeks and then had a showdown with a top ten team from Class 4A in Weatherford. They beat the Eagles 19-6 and really impressed to wrap up non-district play with a 3-0 record. They opened up district play last week at home against Kingfisher and looked like the Panthers were going to come back to earth. Going into the fourth quarter, Pauls Valley trailed Kingfisher 40-22. They would outscore the Yellowjackets 21-0 in the final frame to escape with the three-point victory.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Up next for Pauls Valley is a big road contest against Plainview. Just like the Panthers, this is a Plainview team that is hungry to make it back to the playoffs and get back to winning at a high level. And just like with Pauls Valley, Plainview is also battle-tested coming into this week after playing a tough non-district schedule. The Indians are going to be a tough match-up for Pauls Valley but if the Panthers are truly a state championship contender, this is a game that you win and move on to the next one. And when you look at this district, three of the top five teams in our 3A rankings are all in this district with these two teams and Heritage Hall. The winner here will stay alive for the district crown while the loser is going to have a lot of work to do moving forward. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Below, we take a look at three players from Pauls Valley to keep an eye on this week against Plainview and moving forward throughout the rest of the season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>PAULS VALLEY PLAYERS TO WATCH</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='353410' first='Caden' last='Knighten'] - Senior Running Back</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Whenever you're talking about players to watch for Pauls Valley, it's hard to not start the conversation with Baylor commit [player_tooltip player_id='353410' first='Caden' last='Knighten'] at running back. The senior standout has come back with a vengeance after missing almost all of his junior season with a leg injury. He moved to Pauls Valley this offseason and he's a big reason why we believed the Panthers would go from a borderline playoff team to one of the best teams in the class. And through the first month of the season, he's backed up the hype as one of the very best football players in Oklahoma when he's healthy. We saw several glimpses of that this offseason and he's carried that into this season. When he was a sophomore, Knighten was one of our finalists for PRZ-Oklahoma Player Of The Year and he looks like he's well on his way to doing it again this year. He's not only a threat in the running game but he's emerged as one of their top receivers. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1324224' first='Jorge' last='Fabela'] - Senior Wide Receiver/Defensive Back</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>While there is no doubt that Knighten is the most explosive playmaker on this Pauls Valley offense, you can definitely make the argument that senior [player_tooltip player_id='1324224' first='Jorge' last='Fabela'] is the most complete player because of the impact he has in all three phases of the game. Two weeks ago, Pauls Valley knocked off 4A's #7 Weatherford and it was Fabela that stood out in multiple ways. On offense, he finished the night with five catches for nearly 50 yards. On defense, he had six tackles, a pair of pass breakups and an interception. And he also returned kicks and was productive there. But the most impressive part was the defense as he was matched up with an OU commit at wide receiver and was tasked with chasing him around and limiting the impact he could have on offense. This week, Fabela will look to have that same impact against some of Plainview's playmakers on the outside that have length and speed. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1005608' first='Tanner' last='Perry'] - Senior Quarterback</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1005608' first='Tanner' last='Perry'] was one of our <strong><a href="https://prepredzone.com/2024/09/week-four-top-performers-3/">Top Performers</a></strong> from week four as he helped lead the Pauls Valley comeback win over Kingfisher last week. Head coach Dusty Raper mentioned to us over the weekend that the week four game was Perry's first game where he felt fully healthy this season. And it showed as he would throw for over 200 yards with two touchdowns and run for over 100 yards and a touchdown. Perry was an underrated player in Class 3A last season so his balanced offensive production is nothing new. He was putting up those kinds of numbers for the Panthers last season. And now that he has one of the best playmakers in the state sharing the backfield with him, that's going to open things up for him to have more performances like we saw against Kingfisher. It starts this week with a game against a Plainview defense that has done a good job against running quarterbacks so it will be a challenge. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->