American Charlie High School Game of the Week Preview, Bay at Arnold

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Here in week one of the High School Football season, our American Charlie Grill and Tavern Game of the Week is the for Gavlak between Bay and Arnold Friday night. Let’s start with the Marlins, who are getting set for their opener after a preseason classic at Bozeman. A game the Marlins seemed to have control of only to see it slip away with the Bucks getting the 22-21 win.

”At one point we were up 21-7, and defensively we knew that might be our Achilles’ heel this year.” says Arnold head coach Shawn Campbell. “So we’re working on getting better. But we just have to figure out a way to finish things. We gave up some big plays Friday, obviously you can’t do that in this game. Some long passes that were against a young kid that had to step in due to some injuries. So we’re just going to keep coaching up and getting better and trying to move forward.”

As for the Tornadoes, well they are 0-1 in terms of their record. You see their game at Enterprise counts as a regular season game since it was week one in Alabama last week. Coach Brown didn’t schedule that, but he and his guys are living with it.

“With two minutes left in the half it was seven to nothing.” I mean we got the ball down on the 30, and we’ve got a chance to go in and get a score. And had a bad exchange and fumbled, just the kind of things that you do early in the season. Do you know what I mean, we didn’t have a spring jamboree. And then going right into a normal kickoff classic, wouldn’t be Enterprise. I mean you’d maybe try to find somebody where those mistakes didn’t necessarily hurt you as bad.”

The good thing is for both Bay and Arnold, they now have each other to line up and play against, a good county rivalry that will get everyone on both sides of the bridge excited, well almost everyone! “You know that’s a fan deal and that’s for the people.” coach Campbell said. “We don’t get into all that. Bass a football team on our schedule, we approached from that point of view. From the fan point of you it’s a good deal. You know a crosstown rival, first game of the year. First home game of the season for Arnold in the fall. So the fans and the students and the parents will all be excited. The hoopla will be great. We’re going to try and stay out of that and just focus on trying to win a football game. That’s what we’ve got to do to be successful, I believe. " “

You come off of a tough loss against Enterprise in a physical game, out of state, on the road, you know we didn’t have to do a lot to get the kids motivated on Monday.” adds coach Brown. “Because they know it’s Arnold. You know Panama City is so funny, all these kids they know each other, they’ve grown up with each other. A lot of them have played with each other. So it’s a pretty special, pretty special deal when they get to compete against each other. You know the kids were excited Monday morning when we got here. So we haven’t had to give any ‘win one for the Gipper’ speeches this week because they’re ready to go.”

That game at Gavlak set for 7 Friday night and is one of several we’ll feature on Friday Night Overtime.

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