Friday Night Lights: Tribe's Motor Running at Full Gear
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Like a dependable old car on a brisk winter morning, Du Quoin High School's football team was a little sluggish to start Friday night.
Once the engine found its rythmn, the ride turned out to be nothing but sweet for the Indians.
Scoring the game's final six touchdowns- including three in a 2 1/2 minute span of the second quarter- the 10th ranked Tribe rolled to a 41-6 win over Perry County rival in the 79th renewal of "The Battle of The Beaucoup."
Du Quoin (4-1) maintained its lead in the River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division at 3-0.
Pinckneyville's records are 1-5 and 1-2.
The Homecoming Night victory was Du Quoin's 26th consecutive over the Panthers and 28th since 1980.
Next week, the Indians visit Nashville (3-3, 1-2) while Pinckneyville welcomes winless Sparta (0-6, 0-3).
"I've got to give a lot of credit to our defense," Indians coach Al Martin said. "Early in the game the defense kept us in the game until we could make some plays offensively."
After surrendering an early score on Bryant Shute's 21-yard fade pass to Nathan Morton, Du Quoin's offense needed just a few seconds, 21 in fact, to forge ahead.
Aaron Smith broke free for a 61-yard sprint to the end zone on the first play after Pinckneyville kicked off, tying the score at 6-6. Cayle Diggins' extra point put Du Quoin in front for good at 7-6 with barely six minutes into the game.
Pinckneyville would twice march inside the Indians' 20-yard line on its next two possessions, but were stuffed on a fourth down and seven at the 10 with 6:19 left before intermission.
Enter David Rose.
The Indians' all-state candidate fueled the 21-point uprising by turning Matt Gossett's dump pass down the sidelines into an easy 90-yard touchdown. Diggins' kick made the score 14-6 and set the stage for a huge special teams play.
Du Quoin junior Seth Baxter pulled the ball from Morton's arms on the return and rambled 24 yards down to the Panther nine-yard line. Three plays later, David Gaytan (12 carries, 56 yards) knived in from the two.
Ahead 21-6, Du Quoin would deliver its knockout punch after forcing a Panthers punt. Rose zigged and zagged for a 33-yard punt return to get the drive started. Four plays later, his 12-yard touchdown on an end around pushed Du Quoin ahead 28-6.
"David Rose is the best football player we've seen so far and I am sure he'll be the best we see all season," Pinckneyville coach Tod Rushing. "I felt like we had a chance to maybe grab a two touchdown lead or better at halftime, but we couldn't finish drives. Of course, we had trouble with Du Quoin's speed and athletic ability. Especially David Rose. He's very explosive, but also does the little things like blocking downfield."
Rose-who's key block sprung Smith free on the first Indians touchdown- also had two key pass knockdowns in the secondary prior to halftime. In the third quarter, Rose threw another space opening block as Baxter scored on a 25-yard toss from Gossett.
"We felt very fortunate to be ahead 28-6 at halftime," admitted Martin. "Our defense had been on the field for a long time and Pinckneyville had moved the ball pretty good. We were able to come up with some big offensive plays. And, I felt like our defense played well throughout the game."
25 different Indians recorded at least one tackle. Chaz Bland (eight tackles) led the Tribe with five other teammates making at least four tackles. Jamor Reed had five stops, blocked a PAT kick and knocked down two Pinckneyville passes.
Smith paced the Du Quoin rushing attack with 118 yards. Gossett completed 6-of-10 passes for 174 more yards.
Baxter added a dazzling fourth quarter TD run of 45 yards on his lone carry.
Shute (42 yards rushing) was held to just 68 yards passing, completing only 3-of-16 passes.
"Our record isn't really indicitative of how well we've played at times," Rushing said. "We have three games left and want to finish 2009 on a positive note. We'd like to build some momentum going into next season."
While Pinckneyvile's chances at a third playoff trip were vanquished with Friday's loss, the Indians became playoff eligible with the victory.
Du Quoin 41, Pinckneyville 6
Du Quoin 7 21 7 6- 41
Pinckneyville 6 0 0 0- 6
First Quarter
P-Shute 21 pass to Morton (kick blocked by Reed), 6:24
DQ-Smith 61 run (Diggins kick), 6:04
Second Quarter
DQ- M.Gossett 90 pass to D. Rose (Diggins kick), 6:09
DQ- Gaytan 2 run (Diggins kick), 5:14
DQ- D. Rose 12 run (Diggins kick), 2:40
Third Quarter
DQ- M.Gossett 25 pass to Baxter (Diggins kick), 8:59
Fourth Quarter
DQ- Baxter 45 run (run failed), 9:56
TEAM STATISTICS
DQ PV
First downs 22 13
Rushing yards 266 107
Passing yards 174 68
Yardage lost -12 -17
Total net yards 428 158
Comp-att-int 6-10-0 3-15-0
Punts-yards 5-122 6-181
Return yards 126 69
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-1
Turnovers 2 1
Penalties 6-55 6-60
Poss time 18:51 29:09
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING- Du Quoin: Smith 13-118, Gaytan 12-56, M. Gossett 3-25, Baxter 1-45, D.Rose 1-12,
S. Clarry 3-14, Bigham 1-(-4).
Pinckneyville: Shute 16-42, Bathon 4-23, Rice 8-20, Harris 4-10, Morton 1-4, Knox 7-8.
PASSING-Du Quoin: M.Gossett 6-10, 174 yards, 2 TD. Bigham 0-0.
Pinckneyville: Shute 3-15, 68 yards, 1 TD. Morton 0-0.
RECEIVING- Du Quoin: D. Rose 3-107, B. Williams 2-42, Baxter 1-45.
Pinckneyville: Bathon 2-47, Morton 1-21.
TACKLES- Du Quoin (solo-assists-total): Kabat 1-5-6, P. Jones 2-3-5, Hamburger 2-1-3, B. Williams 0-3-3, Holmes 2-1-3, Heape 2-3-5, Stolhans 0-2-2, M. Clarry 0-2-2, D.Rose 1-3-4, Reed 5-0-5, Hoffman 1-1-2, Bland 4-4-8, Porter 1-0-1, Bigham 1-2-3, Nevil 1-1-2, S. Clarry 1-3-4, J.Williams 0-1-1, Payne 1-2-3, Spain 1-2-3, Pyron 0-2-2, Ragland 0-1-1, Heatherly 0-3-3, Morgenstern 1-0-1, J. Jones 1-0-1.
PUNT RETURNS- Du Quoin: D. Rose 1-33.
KICK RETURNS-Du Quoin: Bigham 3-38.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES- Du Quoin: Baxter. Pinckneyville: Bathon, Rice.
OFFICIALS- Tony Gualdoni crew.
ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE- 2,600.
WEATHER-Windy cool, dry. 60.