(Creston) — Creston/Orient-Macksburg football came home from Boone last Friday night with a 7-0 win.

The Panthers relied on their special teams and defense to open the year in the win column.

“I thought our special teams played extremely well,” Coach Brian Morrison told KMA Sports. “The MVP of the game was our punter Derek Paup. He kept us in great field position the entire game.”

Paup punted seven times for an average of 37.7 yards per kick while the defense forced four Boone turnovers in the defensive struggle.

“We stopped the run and made them a one-dimensional team in the second half,” Morrison said. “Then our secondary took advantage.”

While the defense and special teams guided the way, the Creston/O-M offense managed just 137 yards while breaking in a new quarterback in senior Cole Strider. As Strider gets his feet wet, Coach Morrison says the team will have to continue to find ways to have success.

“We’re going to have to play really good defense, create turnovers and gain field position off those turnovers,” Morrison said. “We saw good things (on offense), but we were just inconsistent running the football. We had a tough time against their front eight.

“I think (Strider) will grow from week one to week two. Skill-wise, we have a lot of receivers coming back that had yardage for us (last year). We have weapons on the outside, and our running back rotation will be solid. Up front, we’re growing as a unit. We just had some missed assignments here or there.”

The Panthers now turn their attention to a former district mate in Winterset. The Huskies, which have won the series matchup in the past three seasons, lost their opening-week game to Van Meter – one of the top 1A programs in the state.

“They’re well-coached,” Morrison said of Winterset. “Up front, they look really physical. They’re typically what they are. Physical up front offensively, their running back is a returning starter. He runs really well and had a big game against us last year.”

In their 48-32 last season, Winterset’s Dawson Forgy went for 260 yards on 32 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns.

“We’ll definitely have our hands full,” Morrison said. “We have to have as many three and outs as possible, and we can’t play behind the sticks offensively. We did that quite a bit against Boone. We definitely have to win special teams again.”

Listen to the complete interview with Coach Morrison linked below.