As if Bowling Green wasn’t shell-shocked enough last week at Pleasure Ridge Park, another Class 6A school from Louisville is headed south to challenge the Purples.

And it sure won’t get any easier.

Bowling Green (1-1) hasn’t had to practice after a loss since a September 2015 defeat at St. Xavier, the very team that will visit El Donaldson Stadium on Saturday for an 11 a.m. kickoff.

The Purples, whose 35-21 loss at PRP snapped a 28-game winning streak, have had an up-and-down week of preparation for the second-ranked Tigers according to BGHS coach Kevin Wallace.

“I can’t say that we’ve come back with a total focus on what we’re doing because we’ve had our moments when I didn’t like the way we were practicing this week,” Wallace said. “My main concern is about what happens at 11 Saturday. …

“We use something in this fieldhouse over and over again. Anybody that’s ever played here has heard it a thousand times: You’re in control of two things: effort and attitude. Coaches and players. We’ve got to do a much better job of that from 11 to 2 on Saturday.”

After Ziyon Kenner returned the opening kickoff last week for a touchdown, PRP manhandled the Purples and led by as much as 21 points. The Panthers offense outgained Bowling Green 401-150, and the Purples averaged just 1.4 yards per carry.

It wasn’t the first time Bowling Green had to fight from a deficit in that 28-game winning streak – Christian County had the Purples on the ropes last year in the playoffs before a second-half bounce back.

But it was the first time – at least since Bowling Green lost to St. X two years ago – that they were just manhandled and didn’t have a good response.

“You can blame part of that on arrogance and that we were so used to winning that it affected us when we weren’t playing well and we didn’t do anything to fight out of it,” Wallace said. “You can blame it on inexperience because we haven’t had guys put in that situation where we’re basically taking a beatdown snap after snap.

“It doesn’t matter where the blame is, you have to find a way to solve it, and we didn’t find a way to solve it.”

Which is why Bowling Green in Week 3 is focusing on itself instead of St. X to avoid back-to-back losses, something that hasn’t happened in the same season since 2002. St. X leads the all-time series 9-5, but Bowling Green has won five of the last six meetings.

The Tigers (1-0) had last week off after defeating Cathedral (Ind.) 35-28 in Week 1. Brett Metzmeier ran for 157 yards and four touchdowns behind a gigantic offensive line that features a guard and tackle already committed to play in college.

St. X’s offensive line consists of left tackle Aaron Curley (5-foot-11, 240 pounds), left guard and Vanderbilt University commit Wyatt Smock (6-4, 290), center Clayton Six (6-3, 270), right guard Nick Canaday (5-11, 260) and a Tennessee-Martin commit at right tackle in Chase Farris (6-5, 315).

Because of obvious size and experience advantages St. X has, the Purples have spent extra time this week focusing on technique.

“Hand placement, footwork, all those things when you’re outmanned a little bit become a great premium,” Wallace said. “They’re very technical and know exactly what they’re doing. They may not do an awful lot that surprises you, but everything they do, they do it well.

“That’s St. X. If you spend your entire week dreaming up new plays because you think you can out-scheme them that’s, in my mind, the exact wrong way to go. You have to teach your young men to combat that.”

Wallace said senior linebacker Jason Beason will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining an injury in the season opener against North Hardin. The Purples are also missing running back Jamele Smith and receiver Harrison Riggs for the season with knee injuries.

The coach said that Purples sophomore running back Vito Tisdale will become a two-way player and move back to the cornerback role he played as a freshman, bringing an explosiveness he said they were lacking so far.

Tisdale will still get touches out of the backfield, but more will be asked of senior Dazhon Blakey and junior Michael Carter.

“I don’t guess I’m a real nice guy because if you’re going to do that to somebody, you’d probably pick someone other than St. X to do it against,” Wallace said. “The thing I told them was we’re going to have a real good idea if you can do it against the best people on our schedule.”{&end}