MERRYVILLE—Two strong running teams will be going head-to-head tonight with a lot to play for.

The Merryville Panthers (4-4, 0-3 4-1A) will be hosting the Elton Indians (2-6, 0-3 4-1A) at 7 p.m. tonight.

With a win, the Panthers will be one step closer to the playoffs with Mark Delaney in his second year as head coach. Delaney is the first coach to return to the Panthers for a second season in several years and last year they were 2-8.

“I really think this is a big game for us,” Delaney said, adding a win would secure the Panthers not having a losing season.

Elton is trying to not only secure being ahead of Merryville in the district standings, it also hopes to get over the hump of losing close games. Two weeks ago, the Indians lost at South Cameron 28-26 in triple overtime and last week Elton lost to Hamilton Christian Academy 32-31.

“We’d love to be 6-2 instead of 2-6,” Indians head coach Carl Flanagan said.

With the way the season has developed, Flanagan said if not for a break here or there, the Indians would be 6-2.

“Kids are playing extremely hard under the circumstances and I’m sure they’re going to play extremely hard Friday night (tonight),” Flanagan said.

The Panthers are coming off of a 40-14 loss at Basile and are on a three game losing streak.

However, all three of those games were on the road and Merryville will be at home against Elton.

Execution on offense is important to both coaches.

Delaney said he is not worried about who the opponent is, the Panthers just have to do the things they do well.

“When you don’t score on offense you can’t win a ball game,” Delaney said.

Daven Hardwick and Cory Carlson are the two running backs for the Panthers. Austin Moore is Merryville’s quarterback.

“As always it’s going to boil down to who controls the line of scrimmage and not committ turnovers,” Flanagan said. “It’s supposed to be a wet night tomorrow night. I think who controls the clock tomorrow night, control the ball and not turn it over. It all comes down to blocking and tackling.”

Landon Carmon is the tailback for the Indians and both coaches know how important he will be.

“They have a really hard running fullback,” Delaney said, adding the Indians use the “g off tackle play” for the fullback.

“They do a really good job of that,” Delaney said.

Jacob Robinson is Elton’s fullback.

However, Delaney said Carmon was able to secure 1,000 yards in five games.

“By no means are we a one man team,” Flanagan said. We have a tailback that’s outstanding.”

Flanagan said the Indians have a good quarterback in Morgan Fruge and offensive line, which includes Travis Daggett, Phillip Duno, Matthew Rollins, Cody Guillory and Patrick Jacobs.

Flanagan said Carmon is one of the top rushers in the state, but he is not the only weapon for Elton.

“If they key on him (Carmon), we’re obviously going to have to get the other people step up and do things,” Flanagan said. “We’ve had some tight ball games. We’ve had some ball games that went down to the wire. We have to play better on defense.”

Delaney said one area the Panthers have played well in was special teams. He noted the offense just needs to take advantage of good field position, which the Panthers have had the last two weeks.

Delaney said last week against Basile, the Panthers were able to execute a fake punt and had a good kickoff and punt return, but could not score a point.

Hardwick, John Hobbs and James Hayes return kickoffs. Caleb Branch was a kickoff returner before he was lost for the season.

Hobbs returns punts and is backed up by Hardwick.

“We’re set in what we’re doing as far as personnel wise. We just have to get it done now,” Delaney said.

“If we take care of ourselves and if we play like we’re capable of, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have a good outcome at the end of the game Friday night.”

“It comes down to blocking and tackling,” Flanagan said. “We need to tackle better and not give up big plays.”

Despite giving up 32 points last week, Flanagan said Elton played good defense. But the Indians gave up three big pass plays, which hurt them.

“If the weatherman is right, I don’t know if anybody will be throwing the ball much tomorrow night,” Flanagan said.

Branch, a sophomore wide receiver/linebacker, is out for the season for the Panthers because he has a ligament dislocated in his thumb.

Branch was the Panthers leading sacker.

“He was the defensive leading tackler,” Delaney said.

“He was exceptionally good on special teams being a blocker.”

Delaney said Branch handled three blocks by himself against South Cameron.

Zach Giles will play “willie linebacker” and Nick Ardoin will play “mike linebacker.”

Carlson will play outside linebacker and Hobbs will the cornerback.

Flanagan said some Indians are banged up, but have fought through it well and all Elton players will be available tonight.

“It’s very important,” Flanagan said. “We’ve got the nicks and bruises just like they do.”

A win would be very helpful to the Panthers.

“It’s our homecoming,” Delaney said. “It’s definitely a confidence builder going into Oberlin.”

The Panthers face the Oberlin Tigers in the final regular season game at Merryville.