FOOTBALL: Panthers end season with three straight wins
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Pinckneyville football closed out 2010 on a three-game winning streak Friday night with a 42-15 victory at Dupo High School.
Neil Kellerman was over 100 yards rushing for the second consecutive week with 117 on 14 carries with a touchdown, Bryant Shute added 69 yards on 16 attempts with a pair of TDs and also made his mark through the air.
"I thought we executed perfectly," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing. "(Other than stopping ourselves) we scored every time we had the ball, and we moved it methodically. We did everything, we threw it well, we ran it well, we felt like we could run whatever we wanted and we were going to get some positive yards."
Things didn't look so good in the early-going for the Panthers, as after Daulton Hubler's opening kickoff traveled into the end zone for a touchback, the Tigers stormed down the field in 8 plays and Mike Massey scored from one yard out for a 7-0 Dupo lead.
The Tigers' success would be short lived, however, as Pinckneyville clawed right back with a touchdown drive of their own.
"We had a little bus lag," said Rushing. "But we responded, we took it right back down and scored."
J.D. Conner brought the kickoff back to the 50 yard line, and he and Kellerman carried the offense down inside the red zone before Shute scored after two keeper runs. The extra point was off and Dupo held a slim 7-6 edge with 3:02 to go in the opening quarter.
The Tigers started to get the ball rolling again on their next drive, but the Panther defense clamped down to force a punt near midfield. With 89 yards to go, Pinckneyville refused to be stopped before Kellerman's 29-yard touchdown run capped of the 9-play drive. Kellerman also had a big gain of 13 during the series, and Justin Hale earned a first down with his 12-yard carry.
Dupo struggled to find anything offensively from that point on, going three and out on their next possession and punting it back to the Panthers, who took over at their own 30 with 3:02 to go in the half.
After runs by Shute and Kellerman helped set up first-and-ten at the Tigers' 33 yard line, Shute found a wide open Hale for a 32-yard pick-up down to the one.
The Pinckneyville quarterback dove up the middle for his second touchdown of the night and a 20-7 Panthers' lead heading into the break.
A fumbled snap on a fourth-and-two turned the ball over to Dupo early in the third quarter, but Pinckneyville's defense was again up to the task and forced another punt after surrendering only a single yard.
Shute would find Hale again, and this time the junior had no one between him and the end zone. The 37-yard score gave the defense all they would need with 7:25 to go in the third and the Panthers on top 28-7.
Hale added a 7-yard touchdown run with 7:42 to go, and Austin Pyatt returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown with just 51 seconds left in the game for the other Pinckneyville score.
Quarterback Caleb Tatum led the Tigers with 123 rushing yards on 17 carries while connecting on 6-of-13 passes for 70 yards.
Shute was 5-for-8 passing for 82 yards for the Panthers. Conner finished with 73 yards rushing on 8 carries, Hale had 27 yards on 4 carries, and Cole Kellerman ran twice for 3 yards - but the story was Cole's brother, Neil.
"Neil's the kind of kid that you maybe don't notice it much early in the year, because he hasn't got the breakaway speed or anything like that, but he is a strong kid that's well conditioned," Rushing said. "As the year goes on, kind of like some running backs get better as the game goes on, I think Neil gets a little better as the year goes on. As some other kids get a little beat up and everything, he's just pretty tough. He's got a tough mold and he just continues to get better."
"He's one we're really going to miss because he's been a great leader in the offseason and on the field for us."
The Panthers finished up 4-5 on the season, just a single win shy of being considered for a playoff berth. All five of Pinckneyville's defeats came at the hands of teams with five-plus victories.
"The kids did a real nice job of getting themselves gathered together after week six and responded to some challenges," said Rushing, whose team will return a large number of juniors (up to 23) from this year's team in 2011 in hopes of returning to the postseason.
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