FOOTBALL: Panthers hold on against Redbirds
Pinckneyville, IL - Pinckneyville held on for a 14-6 win over West Frankfort on Friday night in weather conditions that fully tested the new FieldTurf at Quillman Field.
Playing through rain the entire game, the Panthers took advantage of four Redbird turnovers and a blocked punt on a night when both offenses had trouble getting up to speed.
Down by eight with under seven minutes to go in the game, Frankfort had a first-and-ten inside the red zone, but the Pinckneyville defense came up with a huge stand on fourth-and-two from the ten to force a turnover on downs with 4:44 to play.
West Frankfort forced a three-and-out, but roughed Pinckneyville punter Chase Lazenby, allowing the Panthers to retain possession of the ball and eventually run out the clock.
"(West Frankfort) did a great job defensively of lining up some things that we hadn't seen on the film," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing. "They were really trying to take certain things away from us and in this kind of weather, it worked even better."
"They made some big plays defensively and we stopped ourselves too. We've got to eliminate those silly penalties on the edge. We had several key runs that probably would have led to more points but they got negated by some penalties."
Panther quarterback Colton Nelson ran in from seven yards out with 11:55 to go in the second quarter for the game's first touchdown, then took the two-point try up the middle to give PCHS an 8-0 lead.
With 3:16 on the clock, Justyn Rushing scored a touchdown from 8 yards out on the ground and the Panthers led 14-0 at the break.
West Frankfort quarterback Hadin Restivo sparked the Redbirds with a 1-yard keeper touchdown midway through the third quarter, but the scoring would end after that.
One week after being hospitalized with an abdominal injury, J. Rushing led the Panthers offensively with 43 rushing yards on 8 carries and 73 yards on 6 catches. Several other key players for Pinckneyville were also limited or missing in action.
"We're pretty banged up," said T. Rushing. "Rushing was probably playing at about 70%, Ky (Hamilton) was too."
"We didn't have Logan Woods in there. We started two sophomores on the offensive line, and played another one a lot. Those kids did a great job. We really kind of patched things together this week."
Nelson finished 8-for-20 passing for 86 yards and ran for 23 yards on 12 attempts. Dalton Bathon (1-12) and Daulton Hubler (1-1) also caught passes from Nelson.
Hubler (7-24), Lazenby (1-10), Hamilton (6-4), and Trent Hicks (6-28) helped round out Pinckneyville's total of 132 rushing yards.
The 2012 Panthers (2-0) will now look to do what last season's team could not - improve to 3-0 with a win over Benton in week three.