FOOTBALL: Sparta celebrates first win over Pinckneyville since 2000

Friday night's SIRR Mississippi Division conference football matchup between Pinckneyville and Sparta had all the makings of a dramatic, high-intensity game with a playoff-like atmosphere.

First, the storylines. On the Bulldogs' sideline stood first-year head coach Rob Kirk, an assistant under PCHS head coach Todd Thomas a season ago, as well as assistant coach Jeff Miller, a long-time assistant for the Panthers are recently as 2012.

In the Panthers' lineup was receiver-defensive back Gabe Yearian, a junior who was an athlete at Sparta High School his freshman and sophomore years before moving to Pinckneyville.

Then there was the streak. The Bulldogs hadn't beaten the Panthers since 2000, and they hadn't won three games in their last five seasons combined, much less in four weeks. Both teams entered with winning records and post-season aspirations - Sparta at 2-1, Pinckneyville unbeaten at 3-0.

The lead changed hands twice in the fourth quarter, and looked for a moment like it might get swapped a third time. It all played out like a Hollywood script, complete with a storybook ending… unless you're from Pinckneyville.

The Bulldogs continued their surprising early-season run of success with a 13-9 victory on their home field, securing the win after a late Pinckneyville fumble in Sparta territory ended the Panthers' hopes of a game-winning drive.

"Really what it comes down to is skill, and it comes down to will," said Kirk. "Our kids' will to win tonight was even better than their skill was, and they're talented. It comes down to those last two minutes of the football game when they wanted it more."

In a nearly-even battle on the stat sheet, PCHS out-gained Sparta 262 total yards to the Bulldogs' 253, but it was a pair of deep Drew Kordys touchdown passes - one to Devin Brown, one to Shaun Rogers - that doomed the Panthers in the end.

"My hat's off to them," Thomas said, "they made plays when they had to and we didn't. It's a very simple, but effective philosophy - if you can run the football in high school football you're going to do some very good things, and they can stick it up in there. Their line did a very good job."

Pinckneyville took an early 3-0 lead with 7:46 to go in the opening quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Dylan Carns before the two teams' defenses took over for the next eighteen minutes.

Neither team got inside the red zone again in the first half until the Bulldogs took over on the Panthers' 48-yard line with under a minute to play in the second quarter, and after a short pass from Kordys to Rogers yielded a first down at the PCHS 34, Kordys fired it deep to Brown, just over the hands of two Pinckneyville defenders for six. Sparta missed the extra point and entered the break up 6-3.

It looked like the Bulldogs would pad their lead on their first possession of the second half, but Tristan Fisher picked Kordys off near the Panthers' 10-yard line.

Pinckneyville's offense went three-and-out, but their defense came up big again when Sparta got the ball, stopping the Bulldogs on a fourth-and-five from the PCHS 17-yard line for a turnover on downs just before the end of the third quarter.

Pinckneyville then marched 85 yards down the field for their best drive of the ball game, with quarterback Clayton Houghland finding Fisher for a 33-yard touchdown grab with 10:32 to go in the game. PCHS led 9-6 following a missed extra-point.

"I think they came out and did some things (defensively) we weren't expecting early in the game," Thomas said, "and they were moving around a little bit. They'd been very stationary in the three games we'd seen. They moved guys around with motion and it confused us a little bit. We made some adjustments at halftime that we thought were pretty sound, and we executed and moved the ball, but it just wasn't enough."

Sparta later took over on their own 20-yard line with 6:51 to go in the game and drove down to the Panthers' 26 where they faced a fourth-and-eight with 2:27 on the game clock, setting up the game's decisive play.

Kordys placed a well-thrown ball in the corner of the end zone where Rogers leaped up for the catch, giving the lead back to Sparta, 13-9.

Pinckneyville still had some life, and time, left to change the outcome of the game, but on first-and-ten from the Sparta 38-yard line with just over two minutes to go, Alyze Nesbit jarred the ball loose from Panther running back Trent Hicks with a helmet-to-football hit. Trei Greer picked up the fumble for the Bulldogs and Sparta ran out the rest of the game clock before beginning a huge celebration.

"The kids just love to hit people," Kirk said, "and it's so much fun being around people that like to hit. That's what it comes from, the kids are physical and it's fun to watch."

Hicks led the Panthers with 123 rushing yards on 13 carries. Yearian (5-29), Houghland (1-6), Caulden Lazenby (8-32), Alex Howard (4-24), Adam Banach (3-17) and Dalton Peradotto (3-3) also contributed to Pinckneyville's 224 rushing yards.

Houghland completed 2-of-6 passes for 38 yards throwing to Fisher (1-33) and Banach (1-5).

Seth Ferguson led the Bulldogs in rushing with 74 yards on 26 attempts. Kordys was 8-for-14 passing for 113 yards. His favorite target on the night was Rogers, who hauled in three catches for 35 yards. Brown caught two balls for 64 yards.

Thomas thought his team might have came out a bit flat at the start of the game, but refused to use that as an excuse.

"They won the ball game tonight and we didn't," said Thomas. "We've just got to regroup and get ready to go next week. It's a long season, it's a tough conference, and they've got a good football team. They're going to win some games this year because they can run the football."

Kirk acknowledged that the Bulldogs' losing streak to Pinckneyville as well as his staff's ties to Pinckneyville made the victory a little more sweet.

"We had a passion for this game," Kirk said, "we have other coaches living in Pinckneyville, but now that it's over, we're very focused on Nashville. I respect Todd Thomas a lot, I learned a lot from him last year. We do have a little bit of Pinckneyville in this team, we want to run the clock and control the game, and a lot of our scheme comes from what I learned from him."

"They've wanted this (in Sparta) for so long. I can't wait for the next home game, and I can't wait to see how many people we can get over to Nashville (in week five). Hopefully we can continue to surprise and impress people."

Pinckneyville (3-1, 0-1) will host Du Quoin (1-3, 0-1) this Friday at Quillman Field.