FOOTBALL: Indians clinch Mississippi share, beat Panthers 21-6
A dominant Du Quoin defense held Pinckneyville to just 94 total yards of offense in their week seven game when the Indians held off the Panthers 21-6 for their fifth consecutive win, the fifth straight loss for PCHS. The victory assures DHS no worse than a share of the SIRR Mississippi Division championship.
The Indian defense forced two three-and-outs, took advantage of a bad snap on a punt attempt, and picked off Panther quarterback Daulton Hubler on Pinckneyville's first three possessions of the game.
"We played pretty good defense," said Du Quoin head football coach Al Martin. "You've got to. Games like this you start out and it's hard to get into a rhythm with what we're doing. The defense played super."
Panther head coach Tod Rushing also praised the defensive effort by the Indians, but noted that his team's mistakes were what got them into trouble.
"(Du Quoin's defense is) very good, and when you're in the situation that we are it's even tougher, when you're limited with what you can do," Rushing said. "If you look out there, theres just a bunch of good, solid football players that do what they're told and do it very hard. They're very tough against the run, they've got a couple of nice-sized tackles there."
"They're a good solid defense, but we felt like we kind of helped them along a couple of times with our own mistakes."
Du Quoin got near midfield on the game's opening drive on Friday night, but punted after a penalty-ridden drive. The Panthers got a couple short runs on their first possession before having to punt, then the fourth-down snap went over the head of Chase Lazenby who was forced to fall on it at the fifteen.
The Indians fed it to their backs Deeja Cole and Shayne Baxter for a quick 5-play scoring drive with Cole punching it in from two yards out that put DHS up 6-0 with 4:47 left in the first quarter.
Pinckneyville was held without a first down again on their next drive and gave it back to Du Quoin with a punt to the Indians' 28. Baxter and Cole again led the offense with Cole's 16-yard scamper setting up Baxter's 30-yard TD. Cole took the two-pointer in for a 14-0 lead just before the end of the first quarter.
After a weather delay pushed the game's conclusion to Saturday afternoon, the Panthers drove into Du Quoin territory on a big gain on the ground by Ky Hamilton, but Hubler was picked off by Baxter, killing Pinckneyville's momentum.
"That was big," Martin said. "Shayne made a big play. He just went out and got that ball. That was a big, athletic play there."
"If (Pinckneyville scores) there, it's a different ball game. I told the kids I've been through enough Du Quoin-Pinckneyville ball games, any time you're playing a team where there's a rivalry, people are going to try to do the best they can. They're going to represent each community the best they can, they're putting it all out on the table and we're putting it all out on the table."
DHS quarterback Brenden Fred then found Daulton Donoghue up the sideline for a 68-yard touchdown pass and a 21-0 lead with 9:31 left in the first half.
"We dug a hole (Friday) night 14-0, but we came out today and started with a great drive," said Rushing. "We'd told them that, we said if we go right down and score this first drive we're right back in the football game. I thought we were going to do it and we made a misread. That's going to happen to anyone, and it's especially going to happen with someone who's playing out of his position. I felt bad for Daulton, he took it pretty hard."
Both defenses played well in the second half, but Pinckneyville had gotten in too deep. A fumbled punt set up the Panthers' only touchdown with 2:25 to go in the ball game, a three-yard run by Justyn Rushing.
The Panthers had just 7 first downs in the game to Du Quoin's 17 and completed only two passes.
"You're going to make mistakes, hopefully you learn from them and don't take it too hard, because it's not the end of the world," said Rushing. "I want to win, but I was very proud of them, I thought they hung in there today and played a pretty solid football game."
Baxter went over 100 yards rushing for the second straight week, taking his 20 carries for 116 yards. Cole (7-27), Fred (8-33) and Camden Youngman (9-38) also saw action out of the Indians' backfield. Fred completed 5-of-9 passes for 97 yards, connecting with Donoghue (1-68) and John Erwin (4-29).
For the Panthers, Hubler had 18 rushing attempts for 45 yards against the Du Quoin front line that included his first cousin, Trey Ridgeway.
Hamilton (5-37) and Rushing (4-15) also had positive yardage for Pinckneyville on the ground. Dalton Bathon had one catch for 9 yards.
Pinckneyville (2-5, 0-4) looks to end their skid and grab their first conference win at Sparta this Friday night while the Indians (5-2, 4-0) will try to wrap up an outright Mississippi title at home against Nashville.