FOOTBALL: Panthers come alive in final two minutes
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ With 1:46 to go in the game, Pinckneyville varsity football was staring at an eleven-point deficit and a potential loss to a team that was 0-9 in 2009 and without a win so far in 2010.
On the PCHS sidelines, players, coaches and fans were stunned and silenced, while across the field the Bulldogs were exuberant, confident they had wrapped up a long-awaited victory.
But the tables turned following a 62-yard touchdown drive, an onside kick recovery, and a 50-yard touchdown drive, as the Panthers completed a fascinating comeback to celebrate their second win of 2010.
"It looked pretty grim there with just a few minutes to go," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing, "but a couple big plays by a couple guys stepping up and you see what can happen when you don't give up."
"There's a lot of lessons to be learned from this game. Some personal lessons and some team lessons, but the main one was don't ever quit until the last whistle, you never know what's going to happen."
The Panthers jumped ahead early on a three-yard touchdown run by Cole Kellerman with 3:38 to go in the opening quarter, but the lead didn't last long.
Using their variation of a seldom-seen formation known as the "polecat" (or "lonesome polecat"), the Bulldogs were able to confuse the Panthers defensively in the early-going, allowing London Oliver to break free for a 52-yard touchdown run just three plays into the Bulldogs's drive. Sparta made good on the two-point conversion and led 8-7.
In the "polecat" formation, the quarterback lines up under center with one back, while the remaining lineman are split wide to each side with another blocker and a receiver.
On the kickoff that followed the Bulldogs' first score, Neil Kellerman returned the ball to the Sparta eight yard line, but four cracks at the end zone came up emtpy and Pinckneyville turned it over on downs at the two. The Bulldogs could do nothing with the poor field position and punted it back to the Panthers with 7:37 to go in the half.
With a great opportunity to put up points from the Sparta 34, the Panthers began driving with runs of five yards by C. Kellerman and six yards by N. Kellerman, then Shute kept it down to the Bulldogs 15-yard line.
J.D. Conner lost the handle on the ball on the next play, however, and Sparta pounced on the fumble at their own nine yard line.
After picking up a first down at their own twenty, Sparta's Oliver took a pitch from quarterback Darius Jackson and sprinted through the left side for an 80-yard touchdown and 16-7 lead with 4:53 on the second quarter clock.
Another great return from N. Kellerman set up a six-play touchdown drive that he capped off with a three-yard run for six points .
Shute then forced a fumble on Sparta's next drive and Tyler Glenn picked up the recovery for PCHS at the Bulldogs'47, setting up a Shute-to-Adam Barczewski touchdown pass from 32 yards out just before the half to give Pinckneyville a 19-16 lead heading to the break.
On the third quarter kickoff, Daulton Hubler's kick came off his foot short and low, hitting one of Sparta's players in the front line and rolled around until Austin Pyatt picked it up for Pinckneyville at the Panthers' 38.
Another fumble turned it back over to the Bulldogs, but they would go three-and-out and allow Shute to return a punt back to their 44-yard line.
After picking up a first down on the ground, the Panthers went to the air again as Shute connected with his tight end Marian Brammeier for a 17-yard gain to the Bulldogs' 18.
Justin Hale and Conner then had runs for positive yardage before C. Kellerman found the end zone from 5 yards out.
Shute hit Barczewski on a slant for the two-pointer, and the Panthers led 27-16 with 5:35 to go in the third.
With a chance to perhaps put the game out of reach, Shute was picked off in Sparta territory on the Panthers next drive by Jackson who returned the pick to the Pinckneyville 38-yard line.
Jackson, who fumbled twice on the drive but recovered himself, finished off the successful scoring march with a 3-yard TD and found Jeremy Picket for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to a field goal early in the fourth period.
Conner's third fumble of the night on the kickoff set up another Bulldogs' scoring drive, this one 42 yards in total and aided by a fifteen-yard unsportsmanlike flag on PCHS.
Oliver found a big hole on the left side to break a 20-yard touchdwon with 7:55 to play and Sparta led 30-27.
Another fumble - this one on the center-to-quarterback exchange - was recovered by Sparta at the 50 just two plays into the next Panther drive. Pinckneyville got it back with 4:21 to go in the game, but turned it over on downs at their own 37 when Hale couldn't hang on to a good-looking pass from Shute on fourth-and-seven.
"We just had a heck of a time hanging onto the ball tonight. We scored 41 and we could have maybe scored 65 or more if we hang onto the ball," Rushing said. "That's just part of it, but you can overcome those adverse things if you keep plugging hard, and that's what we did."
Jackson only needed one play, running to the right side for the long touchdown, then up the middle for the two-pointer that followed. The Sparta fans and sideline went crazy after the score, which put the Bulldogs on top 38-27 with just 1:46 remaining in the game.
"They were hungry, haven't had a win (in a long time), and they had a chance to get one here at homecoming," Rushing stated.
The Panthers didn't give up.
Shute broke a big run down to the Sparta 30 with just over a minute to go, then hit Hale on a similar passing play to the one Hale dropped just moments earlier. This time, Hale hung on and raced into the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown. Shute found Barczewski again for the two, and the Panthers trailed by three points with 40.8 seconds left.
With the onside kick their only option, the Panthers lined up and executed the play to perfection. Hubler's kick took a hop and spun into the air exactly the way it's drawn up, and Conner jumped on the loose ball at the 50-yard line for a Pinckneyville possession and some personal redemption.
On first down, Shute fired deep for Barczewski and the senior wideout wrestled the football away from a pair of defenders for a catch at the six, where Shute spiked the ball with 21.6 seconds on the clock to save the Panthers' final timeout.
After an incompletion on second down, Shute had 15.3 seconds for two plays, but would only need one.
The junior quarterback dropped back, then took off for the end zone, leaped over a defender at the goal line and extended the football across the plane for the biggest touchdown of the season for Pinckneyville.
"(Shute) grew up right there at the end and took the team right down the field," Rushing said. "He was smart, he listened, got the ball spiked, killed the clock, I thought he did a great job of leading us there in the last two minutes."
"We had one timeout left, and we told him to run the quarterback draw, I said we've got time, take a look and if you can run it, run it, and call time out if you don't get in the end zone."
The game-saving score also capped off Shute's best game of 2010, as he finished with 60 yards rushing on 14 carries and completed 6-of-11 passes for 144 yards and a pair of touchdowns. N. Kellerman (2 catches, 55 yards) and Barczewski (2-36) were his main targets.
C. Kellerman led the way on the ground with 74 yards on 16 carries, Conner had 10-for-60, Hale 4-26, N. Kellerman 3-20.
The Panthers (2-5, 1-3) look to build on the exciting win as they host Mississippi Division co-leader Carterville for senior night in week eight.