Panthers believe their improvements in execution since Week 2 loss to Warriors will change outcome

CAMP POINT, Ill. — This isn’t about revenge.

It’s about redemption.

While tipping their cap to the way Calhoun played in its 14-13 victory in Week 2 — the Camp Point Central football players universally will tell you the Warriors were physical, tenacious and opportunistic — the Panthers felt they executed at a sub-par level, especially for being the defending Class 1A state champions.

So Saturday’s Class 1A state quarterfinal matchup in Hardin is the opportunity to showcase their progress as much as anything.

“It’s just a playoff game,” Central senior running back Nate Peters said ahead of the 4 p.m. kickoff, a start time moved back two hours to accommodate Calhoun, which has a team playing in the state volleyball finals Friday and Saturday. “That first game, I felt like we did not play well at all. So I don’t really feel like there’s a revenge factor at all.”

That’s because execution matters more than emotion.

“Everybody says it’s a revenge game, but they are just the next team on our schedule, so that’s who we have to play,” said Kadin Niekamp, Central’s honorable mention all-state fullback and defensive tackle. “We know what we have to do to beat them, and I think we’re well capable of that. We have to execute. We have to do what the coaches tell us to do.

“You have to do your assignment. You can’t try to do somebody else’s. If you just do your assignment and the person next to you does their assignment right, we’ll be just fine.”

Some of those assignments were missed nine weeks ago.

“We went down there and did not execute well,” said Central coach Brad Dixon, whose team is 10-1 and has won 37 of its last 39 games. “(Calhoun) did some nice things physically. They ran it at us. We had trouble moving the ball. We turned the ball over. So it’s more about proving that we’ve improved throughout the year.

“We’ve worked through a lot of pieces. … It’s neat that a lot of our guys have stepped up and have gotten better.”

Those same players who have grown into varsity stalwarts — “They now have a season’s worth of games under their belt,” Dixon said — didn’t grasp how raucous and intimidating the atmosphere can be at Calhoun.

So the deer-in-the-headlights looks shouldn’t happen.

“The atmosphere down there is totally different,” Niekamp said. “Some of our guys hadn’t experienced that before. It felt like they were a little bit nervous. Once they fought through it, they settled in and played better. They’ve played enough games in tough environments now to understand how to handle it.”

That’s just the way a more experienced Central team handled it a year ago.

On its way to a 14-0 season and the first state championship in school history, Central beat Calhoun 32-14 in the second round of the playoffs. That happened after a 30-22 victory over the Warriors in Week 2 of the regular season.

No other team came within 14 points of the Panthers last season.

However, only one player — center Jaden Summy — is starting in the same spot he did offensively a year ago. Only three Central defenders are starting in the same spot as they did on the title team. So it truly has been a new team with a new outlook and new challenges.

But the determining factor doesn’t change.

“It’s really going to come down to execution,” Dixon said. “Just like it does every time.”

Scouting and knowledge helps, too.

“We know what they’re doing and what they want to do,” Peters said. “We just have to execute. We know what we did wrong. It’s about knowing what to do that we didn’t do the first game.”

The Panthers are confident those changes have been made.

“Our technique wasn’t the greatest in Week 2, but we’re a totally different team right now,” Niekamp said. “I like the way we’ve improved.”