FOOTBALL: Defense comes up big, but Panthers lose at A-J
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Pinckneyville's defense came up with a tremendous effort on Friday night in Anna, but it wasn't enough as the Wildcats outclawed the Panthers 21-6 in both teams' first River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division game of the season.
The Panthers didn't achieve a first down on offense until the fourth quarter, but found themselves in a close battle that was still undecided with just over three minutes to play when Taylor Fitzgerald broke a 41-yard touchdown run to give A-J a comfortable two-score lead.
"I thought our defense played really good overall," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing. "We knew we were a little vulnerable to the pass tonight and we gave them a little too much cushion on a couple of those plays. I thought coach (Todd) Thomas and coach (Mark) Bullock had an excellent game plan."
The Wildcats took advantage of good field position on their first scoring drive, finding the end zone on a fourth-and-four from the Pinckneyville six-yard line when Aaron Smithey connected with Dalton Baker for a touchdown pass.
A-J also converted a fourth-and-eight earlier in the drive with a 29-yard completion from Smithey to Chase Hargrave.
The Panthers kept it a 7-0 game until the half with their defense, but the offense couldn't get anything going and failed to get a first down on any of their three possessions, the third of which simply ran out the first half clock.
"We still should have been able to move the ball," said Rushing. "We didn't execute like we should have offensively in the first half, part of that was field position. When your back's against the goal line twice, it's kind of tough."
With the Wildcats threatening again early in the third quarter, Fitzgerald took a handoff from the Pinckneyville one-yard line and lunged for the goal line, but forgot to secure the football properly. Caleb Howard pounced on the fumble for the Panthers, who took over to temporarily avoid going down another touchdown.
Pinned deep in their own territory, the offense went three-and-out again, and left A-J with good field position at the Pinckneyville 42-yard line with 3:55 to go in the third quarter.
Fitzgerald ran for a gain of 20 yards, then it was Smithey on a keeper taking it down just inside the ten for a first and goal.
After Fitzgerald got them to the four-yard line, Smithey faked a hand off two plays later from the two and was in for the score.
The offense finally got going for the Panthers early in the fourth quarter, after the defense recovered another A-J fumble at the Pinckneyville 46-yard line.
Once in the spread formation, the Panthers began moving the ball effectively both on the ground and in the air. A screen pass from Daulton Hubler to Adam Barczewski netted a gain of 12 on a 3rd-and-21, and Marian Brammeier made a leaping catch on fourth down to keep the Panthers alive. His 26-yard gain set up Hubler's pass to Justin Hale in the corner of the end zone for the Pinckneyville touchdown with 6:26 left in the contest.
"They probably really weren't ready for (the spread)," said Rushing. "They probably thought we'd come out in power, and maybe didn't realize Dalton has a good arm. He's come a long way ... I think he's matured a lot."
"We were afraid to go into (the spread) until we got a little better field position and we never could get it until the second half. When we went into it, we got what we thought we could out of it, we moved the ball on them."
The onside kick attempt went A-J's way, however, and after the Wildcats picked up a first down at the Panthers' 46, Fitzgerald broke free for the clincher on third-and-four from the 41.
Fitzgerald finished with 135 yards on 18 carries to lead both teams, Smithey added 71 yards on his 21 attempts.
No Panther had more than 16 yards rushing in the game (J.D. Conner), and Pinckneyville totalled only 57 yards on 18 carries. The Wildcats racked up 241 yards on the ground.
The Panthers (1-3, 0-1) were penalized 8 times in the game for a total of 65 yards while A-J (4-0, 1-0) was flagged only 3 times for 25 yards on the night.
Hubler was 5-for-16 passing for 116 yards in what could potentially be his last start at quarterback.
Pinckneyville's lineup in week five against Nashville (3-1, 1-0) will feature the return of starting quarterback Bryant Shute and running back Robbie Knight, both of whom received increased time on offense this past week in practice.
"We get everybody back this week," commented Rushing, who seemed excited about the idea of having a full lineup for the first time in 2010. "We're going to get back in our spread now."
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