Panthers host Winterset Friday

Two teams trying to get on the winning track after season-opening losses will collide Friday at Panther Field as Creston hosts Winterset.

The Huskies are coming off a 45-20 loss to ADM in last week’s opener, while Creston allowed 447 yards in total offense in a 35-21 home loss to Clarinda.

“The good thing I saw in looking at the tape, there was effort for the entire four quarters,” Creston coach Brian Morrison said. “It wasn’t lack of effort. It was lack of execution. That will get better. Hopefully we’ll see a big jump from last Friday to this Friday, because we’ll see a lot of the same blocking schemes from Winterset that we saw from Clarinda.”

The lone lineup change for the Panthers on Friday is Tom Mikkelsen moving from inside linebacker to the position he held the past two seasons, nose tackle in the defensive line. The 210-pound junior earned all-district honors last season as a defensive tackle, but the plan for this season was for Mikkelsen to shore up a situation at linebacker that had graduation losses from 2024.

“We’ll have Tom back at nose Friday and Colby Brammer will be at inside linebacker,” Morrison said. “Tom knows the (defensive tackle) position and we need to solidfy our front.”

Like Creston, Winterset graduated a premier running back (Hank Wilmes) who gained 1,400 yards last season including 179 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-6 victory over Creston. Ben Poter, a 185-pound senior, moves from fullback to running back in succeeding Wilmes, and the new quarterback is junior Carson Cook.

Cook went 17 of 31 passing last week for 169 yards. The top returning receiver is senior Wyatt Swanson, who had three catches for 32 yards. Last year he had two catches for 74 yards against Crestson.

“They threw the ball 31 times last week, but a lot of that was from playing from behind. It was 24-0 in the first quarter,” Morrison said. “ADM is pretty good. If you look at them the last four years, they line up and run the ball. They’ll spread you out, too. Usually when they pass it’s out of play action.”

One of the top returning defensive players for Winterset is senior Jace Bellamy, who had 10 tackles last week and finished last season with six pass interceptions. Bellamy and Porter are the lone two-way players for the Huskies. Otherwise, they platoon offensively and defensively like Creston does.

“Winterset was 5-4 last year, but when you look at their schedule it was tough, and they were playing with people like Lewis Central and Carlisle within a touchdown or less,” Morrison said. “This year it looks like they’re starting a few juniors.”

While both teams are finding their way with a lot of new faces in the lineup, Morrison said improvement on Friday is necessary to be successful.

“We have to sort through some things these first four weeks, but it doesn’t get any easier after this,” Morrison said. “We have Glenwood and Des Moines Christian after this. Glenwood beat Atlantic (32-7) and Des Moines Christian beat Van Meter (29-21). The one thing about last week’s loss is that I think Clarinda will have a good year, and that will help us in terms of RPI.”

Morrison said a good mix of freshmen and junior varsity players from the sophomore and junior classes received valuable experience in Monday’s 21-18 JV loss to Clarinda.

“Besides the 18 points, we were in the red zone three other times without scoring points,” Morrison said. “We gave everyone equal reps and saw a lot of good things.”

Creston (0-1, 0-0)

OFFENSE

T Garrick Clausen 5-10 225 Sr.

G Michael Wofford 6-0 200 Jr.

C Chasse Downing 6-4 270 Sr.

G Gunner Martwick 6-1 250 Sr.

T Layne Sand 6-5 235 Jr.

WR Jace Purdum 6-1 170 Jr.

WR Seth Gordon 5-8 160 Sr.

TE Jameson McDonald 6-1 185 Sr.

TE Rhett Driskell 6-3 190 Jr.

QB Tanner Ray 6-0 155 Jr.

RB Jackson Pettegrew 5-10 180 Sr.

K Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.

DEFENSE

DT Tom Mikkelsen 6-1 210 Jr.

DE Ethan Holliday 6-2 200 Sr.

DE Blake Hayes 6-2 205 Jr.

OLB Coltyr Frey 5-9 160 Jr.

ILB Colby Brammer 5-6 160 Jr.

ILB Kal Barber 5-8 160 Sr.

OLB Brodrick Phelps 5-11 160 Sr.

CB Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.

CB Casen Scarberry 5-10 160 Jr.

S Lane Travis 5-8 160 Sr.

S Davin Wallace 5-8 170 Jr.

P Joaquin Flores 6-0 160 Jr.