TIPTON - The Tipton Cardinals face another tough opponent as the Cardinals look to snap their two-game losing streak as they take on the Knob Noster Panthers.
The Cardinals (1-2) are coming off a 37-8 loss at Windsor while the Panthers (3-0) are coming off a 47-12 win against Crest Ridge. It was the third straight game in which the Panthers scored more than 40 points.
This will be the first home game of the season for Tipton, and coach Tony Braby said the team is going to enjoy the fact they are playing in front of the home fans.
"That should be quite a bit exciting for us," Braby said. "The atmosphere is going to be a lot better for us. When you got that kind of excitement, you want to put on a good show, you want to put on a good game, you are probably going to play harder than you have the games before just because there are more people watching you."
Braby said the Cardinals were disappointed in their back-to-back losses, but are moving on and looking forward to the next game.
"We don't try to dwell on the defeat very long," he said. "It is just not going to do any good. The longer you think about it the more harm it does getting ready for the next (game)."
The Cardinals are looking to cut down their turnovers heading into tonight's test against the Panthers, who are receiving votes in this week's Class 2 Missouri Media Rankings.
"We are kind of shooting ourselves in the foot, so we are looking for a breakthrough of doing better on just basic fundamentals, taking care of the ball and better job of tackling," Braby said. "It is not rocket science we just need to play good, sound, fundamental game and we are not doing that right now but again we are playing tough competition."
Braby said Knob Noster reminds him a lot of North Callaway, which beat Tipton 60-16 in Week 2 at Kingdom City.
Braby said the Cardinals are going to try to slow down Knob Noster's quarterback when it comes to his ability to run the ball.
"They go from tight end to tight end and two to three in the back field. They are not real fancy they just come right at you and we are going to have to play tough defense and put a lot of guys in the box," he said.
"Maybe try to play man-to-man against their wide receivers because they definitely like to run more than they pass. Their quarterback is quite the athlete so I think our game plan is to definitely maybe take the quarterback out of it as far as running goes and see if the other back or backs can beat us. But we really want to try to slow down that quarterback."
Game time is 7 p.m.