FOOTBALL: Indians extend winning streak over Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the twenty-seventh consecutive season, Du Quoin came out on top in the football "Battle of the Beaucoup," pulling away from Pinckneyville for a 57-12 win on the Panthers' homecoming night at Quillman Field.
Seth Baxter torched the Panthers for five rushing touchdowns in the game, racking up 111 yards on the ground in the process.
"It worked out to be a pretty good game for us," said Du Quoin head coach Al Martin. "We wanted the kids to think about getting better throughout the course of the week and try to improve on the basic fundamentals. The kids worked very hard during the week trying to do that and we were able to go out and execute what we worked on."
In week five, Pinckneyville surrendered an opening kickoff touchdown to Nashville to fall into an early 7-0 hole. This Friday, PCHS fans immediately felt a sense of déjà vu, as Indians' return man Aaron Smith took the kick all the way back to the Panthers' 36-yard line to start the game.
"We worked on kicking it low and hard and away from them, and we kicked it right to him," said Panthers' head coach Tod Rushing.
Sam Gossett picked up 15 yards on a keeper down to the Panthers' 19 for a first down, then a five-yard penalty on Pinckneyville handed the Indians another fresh set of downs instead of facing a third-and-four.
Smith took it down to the one before Baxter got in over the right side on fourth-and-goal for the game's first points as the Indian backs broke tackles early and often.
"We've spent more time this year on tackling and tackling drills and open field tackling than in any two years combined in my coaching career," said Rushing.
"The last two weeks, it's been a poor example of how to tackle. I told them I don't know what the problem is, we work on it over and over again in practice, and we do a good job of it - and then we get out here and it seems like we lose all of our fundamentals and don't do what we're supposed to do."
Pinckneyville would start at their own 25, but on the first play from scrimmage, running back Robbie Knight lost control of the football and the Indians pounced on it for possession at the Panthers' 20. Knight was playing in his first game of the season for PCHS.
Cayle Diggins would score on a 14-yard draw just two plays later, and after the extra point sailed wide left, the Indians led 13-0 with 6:31 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Panthers started off much better on their next drive, as quarterback Bryant Shute made a pair of five-yard runs to earn a first down at PCHS' 45.
A screen pass to Knight helped set up another first down at the Indians' 42, but on second and 15 Shute was picked off by Du Quoin's Karson Hoffman for the senior's fifth interception of the season.
Baxter broke a 49-yard touchdown run moments later and the Indians were in command 21-0 when the second quarter began.
The next Panther drive didn't get into Du Quoin territory before a punt, and the Indians responded with a 71-yard drive featuring a huge 33-yard carry by Smith deep into PCHS territory. Gossett connected with James Williams from 15 yards out for the score on fourth-and-goal with 7:00 remaining in the half.
A blocked punt set up another Baxter touchdown with 4:17 to go in the half, and the Indians had extended their lead to 35-0.
Pinckneyville would get on the scoreboard on their next drive as Shute connected with Neil Kellerman for a 21-yard catch before finding Adam Barczewski in the end zone for six with 28 seconds to go in the half.
"I thought we moved the ball when we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot," Rushing commented. "We had a couple penalties that stopped the one drive, we fumbled the ball twice, but other than that we moved the ball some."
Du Quoin wasn't satisfied with their lead, however, going 49 yards in 19 seconds to set up Baxter's 3-yard run as the first half clock expired. Smith leaped to haul in a pass from Gossett for a 31-yard gain just before the touchdown.
Baxter would strike again in the second half, setting the continuous clock into motion with 6:00 on the third quarter clock with a 50-yard touchdown run.
J.D. Conner, who had a nice game running the football for Pinckneyville with 88 yards on 13 carries, found the end zone near the end of the third for the other Panther touchdown on a 42-yard carry.
"It was a tough week for us to prepare, it's a transition for them offensively, figuring out if they're (running) their spread, or their straight 'T'," Martin said.
"They're a dangerous offensive team at times, so defensively we had to be prepared for everything and offensively we wanted to improve on our blocking, because they have good defensive people up front."
Smith backed up Se. Baxter's effort with 96 yards of his own on 10 carries, Trevon Jones added 5 carries for 36 yards, Shane Baxter 7-34 (1 TD).
"Balance was an important focal point, we wanted to be able to get to a point where if (the defense) is going to give you something, we want to be able to take that," said Martin.
"The last two weeks teams have been taking away the inside trap, and I think (Pinckeyville) took it away early, and if they take that away we have to be able to run something on the perimenter, the outside. We were able to do that, and then they focused their defense to the outside, and then we ran the inside trap."
Kellerman had 28 yards (5 carries) good for second-best for the Panthers behind Conner, Knight added 23 yards (7 carries).
Shute ran 11 times for 18 yards and was 3-for-7 passing for 33 yards in the air with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
Gossett was 4-for-5 throwing the ball for 50 yards and a TD.
The Indians (4-2, 2-1) look to build on this past week's victory as they take on the loaded, state-ranked Nashville Hornets at Van Metre Field this Friday while the Panthers (1-5, 0-3) try to get back in the win column at winless Sparta.
"I can't put my finger on what's happened the last two weeks," said Rushing, "but we're going to get back to work and put our noses to the grindstone and see if we can't get back on the winning side."
In an injury-related note, Du Quoin's Chaz Bland sat out Friday's game agaisnt Pinckneyville with an ankle injury suffered in practice, but is expected to play against Nashville in week seven.
As part of the Homecoming festivities at halftime, Pinckneyville honored the 1950 Panthers squad - the last football team in school history to finish undefeated.
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