FOOTBALL: Panthers shut out Benton to get to 3-0
Pinckneyville came into week three on the heels of blowout victories over Red Bud and West Frankfort, and some people believed their third opponent, Benton, would provide the Panthers with their first real test of the season.
If that was indeed the case, they passed with flying colors.
The Panther defense shut out the Rangers and the offense continued its' torrid pace as Pinckneyville moved to 3-0 with a 28-0 home win over Benton, getting three touchdowns and an interception from Caulden Lazenby, who finished the game with 113 rushing yards on 9 carries. Trent Hicks also put up big numbers on the ground, going for 98 yards on 18 attempts as PCHS racked up 344 rushing yards as a team.
"We were able to sustain some drives," said Pinckneyville head coach Todd Thomas, "and when you're able to do that in high school football, and you run the ball and stop the run, you're going to have success."
"We had a good mix tonight. Our kids ran hard. What really impressed me about our kids tonight is that we blocked well for each other, we really had some kids step up for each other and block well."
The Panthers allowed 213 total yards to Benton's offense - 97 of those coming through the air in the second half as the Rangers tried to play catch-up - compared to 368 total yards for the Pinckneyville offense, which often utilized misdirection and counter run plays to pick up their 18 first downs.
"I thought offensively we ran off some nice drives, but we didn't finish them off," said Benton head coach Jeremy Clodfelder. "The d-line play I didn't think was too terribly bad, but our linebacker play was really, really bad. Bad probably doesn't even do it justice right now, there's no press, there's no physicality. That's why the counter beats you."
Lazenby got the scoring started with a 45-yard touchdown drive on the Panthers' first possession of the night, and Dylan Carns' extra-point made it 7-0 PCHS with the first quarter clock sitting at 9:40.
Neither team ventured into the red zone on their next possession, but the Rangers appeared ready to tie the game early in the second quarter after driving 50 yards to the Panthers' 11-yard line for a first down. A penalty flag set them back five yards, but an 8-yard pass from Caleb Rock to Kruz Hayes followed by a 6-yard carry by Hayes left Benton with a fourth-and-one at the 2-yard line.
Rock tried to take it in on a bootleg run, but was stuffed short of the goal line - and short of the first down - turning the ball over to Pinckneyville with 8:55 to go in the half.
"The quarterback has to know down and distance down here," Clodfelder said. "You've got to get the first down there. Get vertical, put your pads down. All you've got to do is get a half of a yard, and we tried to stretch it out and go to the sideline. You've got to put your big boy pants on, get down and get us a half of a yard so it's first and goal inside the one."
If coming up empty on that drive wasn't deflating enough for Benton, the Panthers took over and went 98 yards, eating up 8:38 of game clock on a 16-play drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Hicks with just 17 seconds left before the break.
"That gave us some momentum and kind of put it over the top going into halftime," Thomas said. "That's hard to recover from."
Benton started the second half with the ball and drove as far as the Panthers' 34-yard line, but from there a false start flag on third-and-four was followed by two incomplete passes and a turnover on downs.
Both teams threw interceptions on their next drive, but after Pinckneyville took over on the Rangers' 40 with just under four minutes to go in the period, they needed only three plays to make it a 21-0 ball game.
Alex Howard picked up three yards on a first down run, then Gabe Yearian broke free on a delayed handoff for a 26-yard pickup and a first down at the Benton 11. On the next play, quarterback Clayton Houghland tossed to Lazenby who took it in for six.
Lazenby later added a 6-yard touchdown run with 7:02 to play in the game, and Tristan Fisher would secure the shutout on an interception inside the Panthers' 10-yard line with less than a minute to go.
"We're breaking on the ball well," Thomas said, "the kids are doing a good job. It's nice to get a shutout, it doesn't mean everything, we're just happy to get the win."
"We gave up some yards rushing tonight, but when it mattered, we got the stop. We tell our kids all the time it's not first downs that win football games, it's touchdowns, and we kept them out of the end zone, the kids did a good job."
In addition to the big games by Lazenby and Hicks, Adam Banach (10 carries, 50 yards), Yearian (2-33), Dalton Peradotto (4-16), and Howard (5-11) also carried the football for Pinckneyville. Houghland was 3-for-9 on pass attempts for 24 yards with two interceptions, connecting with Fisher (2 catches, 22 yards) and Lazenby (1-2).
Kelley finished up with 78 rushing yards on his 17 carries for the Rangers. Rock was 10-for-21 throwing the ball to 7 different receivers for 110 yards with a pair of interceptions. Jesse VanHoorebeke led Benton in receiving yards with a 23-yard catch while Hayes (2 catches, 13 yards) and Trey McDaniel (2-8) led the way in receptions.
Pinckneyville, 3-0 for the first time since 2006, will try to reach 4-0 for the first time in the IHSA playoff era when they begin SIRR Mississippi Division play at Sparta this Friday.